Confessions of a Band Camp Geek
by kimiko888
Summary: I was the one who stole those extra marshmallows, I infested the cabin with wild creatures, I started the cabin wars, I drenched the counselor in paint, and I almost ruined my best friend's relationship. Ah, gotta love "band camp". I Do not own Inuyasha.
1. Prologue: Not a Happy Camper

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_Then When you graduate,  
Ya take a look around and you say "Hey Wait!"  
This is the same as where I just came from,  
I thought it was over, Aw that's just great._

_-Bowling For Soup "High school Never Ends"_

**Prologue: Not a Happy Camper**

Have you ever been to sleep away camp? If not, here is my advice to you, the golden rule:

STAY AWAY!

Sure, they make it sound fun with the thought of being away from your parents, fun activities, good food, and the things like cabin rivalries that are supposed to be friendly. Well I'm going to stop your happy train of thought _right now _because all that? Yeah, it's bullshit.

One thing the camp brochures forgot to mention is the amount of _walking _you have to endure. If I knew I had to walk through a thick forest for ten minutes with nothing but a flashlight to get to a bonfire being held on a tiny island in the middle of the lake, do you think I'd be here? No! And then just to get to my cabin I had to walk a frickin' _mile, _pushing a ten ton trunk! Tell me, does that sound like fun to you? I didn't think so.

Another thing I have to point out is that the escaping your parents thing is a lie. Yeah, your _biological_ parents aren't here telling you what to do—they're partying in frickin' _Hawaii—_but you have counselors and they might as well be your parents. The counselors punish you when you break the 'law', give you a curfew, and 'ground' you when you sneak out. At least _my _mom had the sympathy all mothers seem to carry around with them; these people don't give a damn if you're suffering from withdrawal. You do the crime, you pay the time.

Now, about the whole good food tidbit? They're right; the food is just a centimeter short from heaven. They just forgot to mention the fact that if you get in trouble, you're put on kitchen duty. Then if you screw up and burn something or add in a wrong ingredient, _you _have to eat it. Isn't that a bit of _cruel _and _unusual _punishment!? And if you screw up the food too many times, they put you on dish duty and nothing seems heavenly when you have to clean the fifty _trillion _dishes the camp uses.

Yeah, that 'friendly' cabin rivalries thing is a lie. It's just the title the camp gives them to cover up the true bitchiness of it all. It's a propaganda technique they use to make you think you can pull some risky pranks and it's all for fun, but it's just bullshit. _Nothing _is friendly about walking up to find your undergarments on display for the entire camp's enjoyment. Friendly rivalry my ass.

And now to drop the big bomb.

Camp. Is. Like. School.

Don't gasp and give me that shocked look or accuse me of being a pessimist. I'm just telling you like it is. You still have to get up at a certain time so you can't sleep in, you have a curfew because you've got 'school' the next morning, those 'fun' activities are your classes, and the 'fun' activity instructors are your teachers.

And that's not all, there's still the ultra bitch, dickhead, cliques, crushes, evil 'teachers', and there is _still_ the chance of getting lock down or as I like to call it, detention. These People just round up all the horrors of high school and throw it into a summer camp, but what's worse is you don't even have the weekends off. If they added _that _in the brochure you'd keep your happy butt home.

So, being the nice person I am, I'm giving you all a warning of what camp _really _is and not the sugar coated bull they throw on a flyer to trick you. What that is, is just a form of propaganda to snatch away your money. I'm coming to you with the _truth._

But hey, if you want to toss all my words of wisdom out the window and hop on a bus to a 'fun filled' summer, got ahead. I'm not stopping you. For all I know, maybe you _do _like hiking through the forest, smacking away mosquitoes, having 'friendly' rivalries, and continuing your high school days into summer. Maybe you are a morning person who doesn't mind getting up early or a person who isn't going to do anything stupid to get them kitchen duty. Maybe you're capable of seeing all the good this summer camp offered you.

I'm _not. _I'm not one of those happy campers who can just smile 24/7 because of the feeling of being in the '_fresh air'. _And it's not because I'm a pessimist either, I just see the _truth _in places like these. They aren't happy places.

But go on, ignore my advice of what _really _awaits on those grounds. Go on and hop on that bus thinking you're going to a place where joy and sing-alongs exist. Just make sure it's a bus with A/C.

This is Higurashi Kagome and you. Have. Been. _Warned._

_**-0-0-0-0-0-**_


	2. Confession 1: I Hate Trekking

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_Well they can take, take, take the kids from the summer  
But they'll never, never, never take the summer from me  
It was the very first time that I lost my mind for the week_

_-All Time Low "The Beach"_

**Confession #1: I hate Trekking**

"It's so hot!" I complained as I hopped off the bus, my gray converse hitting the dirt road as I stretched my aching limbs. We had been dropped off in front of the main building and were told to find our luggage and cabins, and then head back towards the main building. The 'first day of camp' meeting would be later.

"I second that," Sango agreed as she climbed off the bus, "It was hot as _hell _on that bus."

Yeah, it was just my luck that I'd hop on the bus with the broken A/C and these were the kind of buses where you can't open a window. If it weren't for me being used hot and crowded places for long periods of time due to watching Nameless perform in sweaty bars and overcrowded parties, I would have definitely fainted. It's not like I could take my shirt off like the entire male population on the bus did. I may be taken, but I can still appreciate the well toned inhabitants of the opposite sex.

"Y'all complain too much," Bank stated as he got off the bus, pulling his shirt over his head, Jakotsu right behind him, pulling the edges of his muscle shirt into place. "It wasn't that hot."

Right now, I am not happy with Bank. First he complains about my texting with Inuyasha when _he _was reading over my shoulder, then he decides to only play songs that I _hate _on his iPod so I end up having to get my _own_ iPod out (I was trying to save the already dying battery), and _then _he takes his shirt off right beside me while I'm burning up. He could at least have _some _sympathy. Jerk.

"Yeah, says Mr. Lets-take-off-my-shirt-because-it's-hot-but-I-really-want-Purple-Streaks-to-check-out-my-six-pack." Sango shook her head while I laughed and Bank was speechless with a slack jaw. "Really Bank? Did you have to go there?"

"He's too sexy for his shirt!" Jakotsu sang and Sango and I cracked up, Bank now glaring at his brother.

"How are we even related?"

"Well you see it's a thing called the birds and the bees. Mom and Dad—"

"Ack!" Bankotsu cut him off, grimacing. "The last thing I need is a mental image of the process that got me here." Bank finally let the tension out of his shoulders and sighed, starting to walk away. "I'm going to grab our bags, Jak you go find out what cabin we're in."

"Aye, Aye Captain!"

The two Kotsu brothers left and I turned to Sango. "So you want to try our luck to see if we're in the same cabin or grab our bags?"

"The anxiety is killing me," Sango stretched her arms above her head. "Let's check the cabin assignments."

I nodded and headed towards the left before pausing, thinking it over and going to the right. Or do I just keep straight?

"Sangooooo," I whined as I turned to face her amused smile. "Which way do we go again?"

"Weren't you listening to the _specific _instructions the lady who climbed on to the bus told us before we got off?"

"Well _excuse _me for being more distracted about getting off that stupid bus." I rolled my eyes, like she wasn't thinking about it too. "Can you just tell me where we go already?"

"Find a counselor in a blue shirt. In our case," She pointed behind me and I turned to see a guy around his early twenties with a clipboard and smiling at a group of gushing girls. "Right behind you."

"You could have said that in the first place," I grumbled as I made my way to the guy the girl's were crowding around.

My god! He's too old for you now _move _already. I'd like to know exactly where I'd be spending the next six weeks. I wasn't in an exactly patient mood and I _kind of _shoved a particularly perky girl with pig tails to the side and that left me a tiny hole to slip through. I tapped on the guy's broad shoulder to get his attention away from the crowding girls.

"Yes?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know what cabin I'll be in."

"Name please?"

"Higurashi Kagome. Oh! And I'd like to know which cabin my friend is in. Her name is Tanaka Sango."

"Alright Miss Higurashi you will be in…" He flipped through the pages on his clipboard. "Ah, there you are. You will be staying in the Crazy Frogs cabin and…" He flipped a couple more pages, "So will your friend." _Yes! _"I hope you guys have a nice time."

I nodded my head and was working my way back through the group of campers when I realized I had no idea _where _the Crazy Frogs' cabin was. I turned back around to ask, but there were too many people, great.

"I got our cabin assignment!" I called as I jogged up to Sango who had her duffel resting by her feet and was now pulling her luggage from the huge heap. She paused and looked up at me smiling.

"Considering you said assign_ment _as in singular, I'm assuming we're in the same cabin."

"You are correct. Crazy Frogs."

"Whoo!" Sango did a jump in the air and gave me a high five. "Score!"

"Yeah… I didn't get the directions though."

Sango's huge smile fell before she waved it off, bending over again to yank out her suitcase. "Don't worry, we'll run into somebody who knows where they're going."

"Yeah, hopefully," I mumbled as I grabbed my duffel bag and guitar which were, as luck would have it, resting on the top.

"And we have the—oof!" Sango's suitcase came out with another hard pull and she dusted her hands off on her jeans. "You need help with that trunk of yours?"

I walked around the heap, searching for it. "I don't…" I found it at the very bottom of the ginormous pile. "Yeah, I am definitely going to need some help with this one."

Sango came over to stand by my side and bent down to grab hold of the side handle with me. "Okay, on the count of three we pull." I nodded my head. "One… Two… Three… Pull!"

I pulled with all my strength but the thing didn't budge. We tried a couple more times before I was out of breath. How much does this stupid thing weigh!?

"This would be easier if you hadn't shoved all those stupid Lion King shirts in at the last minute."

I gasped. "Do _not _bash the Lion King merchandise. They are a very special gift to me."

"Yeah, whatever. Pull!" We pulled but the trunk moved only a centimeter this time, maybe.

I looked up to ask for extra help and that's when I saw her. She was wearing super short jean shorts with frayed edges and a yellow tank with a bejeweled, 'BEBE' on it and a tan belt hanging loosely over her tank that was over lapping a green tank. She was wearing yellow and gray striped socks that went half way up her claves with brown… boots? Her hair was still curly though and eyes the same envious shade of evergreen.

I stopped pulling and stood to my full height. "Hey!" She looked at me with raised brows. "I know you. You won the Karaoke competition back in December. Saratoga Yuuki."

She smiled at me slowly. "Yeah… I remember you."

What can I say, I'm an unforgettable person.

"You…" she pointed at me, eyes squinting in recognition."You're the girl who ran off the stage crying."

…

_Ouch._

"Well… I—"

"Well, you don't look as pathetic now without the tears, but that shirt makes you look four." She picked up her duffle and threw it over her shoulder, smiling a big, fat, fake smile. "Tootles!"

Why that little…

"Yeah? Well… who wears boots in July anyways!?" I shouted to her already retreating back.

"Not only are you extremely late, but it is June Kags. Not July."

I turned to Bank who had magically appeared. "Can I at least _pretend _to have my moment?"

"I hope she's not in our cabin," Sango spoke, standing beside us. "That shirt should say bitch."

"Forget bitchery for a moment," Bank declared, draping his arms over our shoulders. "Look around you, smell the fresh air. This, _this, _is where it's all going to happen. Where we evolve into amazing artists, magnificent musicians…" Bank's constant use of alliteration got annoying. "Where we—"

"Fall head over heels for the purple streaked girl you were staring at for practically the entire bus ride and is now head in our direction," I cut in and Sango stifled a laugh.

"What?"

"Landing in 5…4…3…"

"I gotta go."

"_Two _late."

"I—"

"One; touchdown." I felt Bank tense up and I turned to Sango. "Huston, we have a problem."

We all stood awkwardly when Purple Streaks approached looking for her bag, trying to act normal, which was only making us _not _normal. Bank was all fidgety and kept shooting his eyes around the area as if he had committed some awful crime. Sheesh, I hadn't seen him this bad since the Battle of the Bands. He had it bad considering he just met the girl three hours ago. No, he didn't even _know _her.

Purple Streaks finally noticed our awkwardness and looked up at us through her black and purple bangs. "Hi…"

"Hi," I chirped my voice higher than it should be. I cleared my throat and quickly thought of something to say. "I was just admiring your outfit." She had an 'I Love Tokyo' white t-shirt and was wearing cuffed jean shorts like mine, but with rips and patchwork. "Love your shorts."

"Thanks," she smiled at me, standing to her full height. "You shirt is cool."

Ha! Take that Saratoga! My shirt is _cool._

"You wouldn't say that if you saw her trunk," Sango grumbled, putting herself in the conversation. "She shoved all the customized Lion King shirts she got into her trunk and now it's impossible to pull out."

"Shut up," I glared at Sango before turning back to Purple Streaks. "You haven't even seen the back." I jumped around and put my back on display.

"I'm surrounded by idiots…" Purple Streaks read and she started laughing as I turned back around. "That's good." She smile and extended her hand. "Rei."

I took her hand in a firm handshake. "Kagome."

She shook hands with Sango next, "Hey, I'm Sango."

"And her boyfriend's a perv so stay away from him on Visitor's Day."

"Kagome!"

Oww… Sango still punches hard.

Rei laughed and then turned to Bank—who had been silently gawking the entire time—and extended her hand, smiling a smile that I'm sure would have made Bank faint if he didn't fear making an even bigger fool of himself. "And you are…"

Bank cleared his throat, reaching for her hand and I could see how much it was shaking. "I'm—"

"Bankie! Bankster! Bank-man! B-Bank bomb!" Jakotsu called out as he jogged towards us. "I found out what cabin we're in!"

I know it was just Jakotsu's personality, but couldn't he have some better timing? I mean, _really_?

Bank went tense, stopping about an inch from Rei's hand, freezing up like the North Pole. I have never seen him so red. It was like all the blood in his body rushed to his face. Nice going, Jak.

"Hey! Look at your older brother when he's speaking to you, Bankie-_poo!_" Jakotsu called again and we all (me, Sango, and Rei) tried to stifle our laughter. Bank got redder, to the point where it looked like he was going to explode, and then he turned on his heel and marched towards Jakotsu, shoving him as they walked away, arguing about something.

"So…"

"He's just shy," I tried to explain, telling a lie in the process. Bank is not a shy person at all, but if I told her that, she might think she did something wrong when in actuality, Bank just doesn't know how to act when he's developing a crush. I can't say that though, because Bank would have my head for ruining that frustrating thing men call pride.

"Yeah… His brother was…" Sango trailed off trying to find the right words. "He was just being an older brother and getting under his skin. It's a sibling thing."

"Oh."

"Don't worry about it," I waved off, trying to make light of it all. I bent down over to try to yank my trunk out again and Sango joined me. "He just gets embarrassed easily."

"Got it."

We gave it a hard pull and the two ton thing finally let loose from the heap of luggage.

"Yes!"

"So what cabin are you in?" Sango asked, tossing her duffle over her shoulder and grabbing the handle of her rolling suitcase.

"Crazy Frogs."

"Really? Us too."

"That's good. Now I won't get lost."

"Don't count on it," I called, tossing my duffel over my shoulder and balancing my guitar case on my trunk. "Our navigation skills are next to zero _and _we're in the woods _and _we're first time campers."

"That's why they gave us a map, Kagome."

I got behind my trunk, ready to push. "Really? Where'd you get that?"

"It came in the mail with our acceptance letter," Rei explained as she started walking down the dirt path to the right and I started pushing. Man, this thing is heavy. "Didn't you get it?"

"She probably didn't even look. Kagome's just observant like that," Sango spoke with a roll of her eye, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Hey!"

Though it is true—I only read 'You've been accepted' before I started dancing around—that doesn't give Sango the right to just throw me under the bus! Besides, wouldn't the _logical _thing be to give it to us when we get to camp? What if somebody lost it? Seriously, there are quite a bit of bugs in this whole camping thing.

Rei and Sano were laughing as I struggled to push my _three _ton trunk. Ugh. Inuyasha made carrying it look easy. Then again, 500 pounds is nothing to him. Lucky Hanyous.

"Can I get some help here!?"

"You shouldn't have packed the Lion King wardrobe!" Sango called over her shoulder and they both started cackling.

This is the start of a beautiful friendship. This is good, because playing matchmaker would be a whole hell of a lot easier if I were friends with Rei.

~0~

My God. I knew camps required trekking through the forest, but considering the fact that I was going to an _art _camp, I was hoping for walks to be maybe a few feet long, you know, so we don't bring our creative minds fatigue. But, as usual, I was wrong; these treks last for _miles_. Okay, so that's over exaggerating, but when you're pushing a three ton trunk it feels like you've been walking forever. At least I won't have to worry about staying in shape over the summer for swimming.

"We're here!" Sango announced as we approached our cabin, a dancing frog hanging over the door.

"Thank the lord!" I all but collapsed on my trunk with relief. Any longer and I would have busted a lung. "We've been walking forever!"

"Actually, it was no more than five minutes."

Like I said, when you're pushing a trunk three tons…time just seems to go on forever.

"Well…" Sango and Rei were already snickering as I stalled to try to make up an excuse. This whole, 'Let's Make a Joke Out of Kagome' thing was starting to get old. I'm not _that _funny. They wouldn't be laughing if they had to push this trunk.

"Let's just go in so Kagome can rest her exhausted limbs."

Sango and Rei headed up the steps and I grabbed my guitar, zooming past them so I could claim the top bunk before Sango. Being up higher gives me a sense of superiority.

I decided that the second to last bunk on the left side of the cabin was where I was going to mark my territory. I threw my duffle and guitar case on top of bed, making it clear that this bed was in fact taken. There were about eight bunks total, four on each side. I shuddered. The thought of sharing a cabin with sixteen girls is a terrifying thought.

I was about to leave to drag the five ton trunk in, when I noticed a red head with black streaks who was kneeling on the top bunk of the bed beside me, caught my eye. She was… she was _carving _something into the ceiling.

"What are you _doing?_" I asked, shocked as I stared wide eyed. I don't care about vandalism as long as it's not insulting, but I've never been a _witness._

"I'm…" She trailed off as she finished her carving, looking at it with pride. "Being awesome."

That was a great answer.

I looked up and read what she wrote. _Art Scouts kick ass- Hirose Aimi. _Isn't it smart _not _to leave your name when you vandalize something?

"What's an art scout?" I asked curiously, not really caring much for the girl's possible stupidity. Not that I'm judging her! I'm just… making an observation.

"Only the coolest campers in the whole camp." She looked away from her work and looked down at me. "They're the people that are here for art." She eyed my guitar case and scowled. "You're obviously here as a _Music Scout." _Maybe it's just my imagination, but she said it like it was… a _bad _thing.

"Is that… bad?"

"Not really," she shrugged as she hopped down from the bunk with unbelievable grace. "It's just that while Talent says to be a camp for the _arts _it might as well be another 'Camp Rock'. Basically all the attention is focused on the musicians and dancers. They get the best teachers and the best classes. Nobody comes to the Art Scouts' gallery but rather the huge Talent show at the end of the six weeks." She sighed. "It's such a shame, but," She glared at me and I thought that it really _was _a bad thing to be a 'Music Scout'. "It shouldn't matter to you."

"Oh!" I waved my hands in front of me frantically. "No, I'm a… _Art Scout _too, but I still play the guitar and sing. I got in here for my art."

The girl's eyes widened a bit. "Oh." Then she smiled and offered her hand. "Hirose Aimi, abstract artist, returning camper," she smirked, allowing a fang to show. "And an impulse thinker. I act on impulse so if you're not willing to take a risk, I'd advise you to stay away from me."

Aimi… She had long red and black hair that was layered and with choppy bangs. She had blue eyes like Bank's, wore a nose ring and her pointed ears had been pierced about four times each. She wore a yellow shirt with an alien on it that said 'We Come in Peace'. She was wild—fun—she was a returning camper—hard to get lost if she was around not to mention she could fill me in on the routine—and she was a demon obviously—demon blood equals massive strength to carry a huge trunk. And she was an Art Scout. I have a feeling we're going to be great friends.

I took her hand and we shook. "So you're a demon."

She nodded and smiled, flashing her fangs. "Neko Youkai? Is there a problem with that?" She raised her brow, daring me to say something offending. Yeah, I'm not _that _stupid.

"No… I was just wondering if you could help me bring in my trunk."

Aimi tsked and shook her head. "Over packing, it's a rookie mistake." She motioned for me to follow her. "I think that we're going to be good friends. I just got one of those feelings. Oh, I like your shirt. I'm a Mulan person myself."

I smiled at her and followed her out the cabin. Another Disney fanatic.

"Me too."


	3. Confession 2: I Broke the Important Rule

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_I'll keep you my dirty little secret,  
(Dirty little secret)  
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret,  
(Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)  
My dirty little secret._

_-All American Rejects "Dirty Little Secret"_

**Confession #2: I Broke the Most Important Rule**

"Shit," Aimi, who was hanging upside down, mumbled out of nowhere and I looked up from my phone. I had been staring at it in hopes that Inuyasha would text. Not that I'm obsessed or anything, but I'm _bored,_ and hungry, and god damned frustrated.

Aimi had been explaining the social networking of Talent. My stomach started to churn as I realized how similar it was to East High. There were art scouts, drama scouts, photo scouts, dance scouts, and music scouts and the music scouts ran the camp, dance scouts coming in a close second. And they say summer is your escape. That was some bull.

"What?" Sango asked from below me. Rei also looked up in question from where she sat across from Sango, her bunk mate now Aimi.

"Our Cabin Counselor is here," She answered and we all turned to the entrance of the cabin to see a lady with short, frizzy brown hair, glasses and wearing jeans and a t-shirt. "Ms. Enoki."

"Is she evil or something?" I asked looking the lady over, searching for gleaming red eyes that would indicate she really had the soul of a devil. I couldn't find any. In fact, she looked nice to me.

"No," Aimi sighed as she sat up right on her bed. "She's just annoying."

"How?"

"Alright Crazy Frogs!" Ms. Enoki called and the once loud cabin of sixteen girls hushed. "I want you all in a circle in the middle of the cabin pronto!"

Aimi hopped off her bed and I followed in suit. She looked at Enoki's gushing smile and shuddered. "She likes _bonding _methods."

"Is that really bad?" Sango asked with a raised brow as we sat on the dusty wood floor, forming part of the circle.

"She's too damn perky and the _bonding_"—Aimi shuddered again—"drives you crazy. It's like she's some family therapist trying to get a torn family to be one again, or a mother who wants to know _everything _about her kids. It's frustrating."

"I don't—"

"Now look at all these bright faces!" The lady gushed and I felt like I was in Kindergarten again. "I hope you are all ready for a fun filled summer here at Talent, I know I'm going to enjoy getting to each and every one of you personally."

Was it possible to smile that big and not have your cheeks crack?

I leaned towards Aimi and whispered, "I see your point." Aimi nodded her head in an affirmative gesture.

"What we're going to do is say our name, our talent, and something interesting about ourselves."

Bleh. How I hate these stupid first day rituals. At least these are better than what we have to do at school; they used to make us do that stupid thing where you say your name, do a hand gesture and then the person after you had to the same gesture as you, remember your name, and come up with another clever gesture. The farther you go, the more names and gestures you have to be sure to remember. Imagine how much this pissed me off, a person with a horrible memory.

Still, this little get-to-know-you activity was frustrating. How am I supposed to think of something really interesting that would blow the socks off everyone? I could say I swim, but that's being uncreative and lazy which doesn't seem to fit art camp standards. Do you see how frustrating this is?

"Alright," Enoki looked around with clasped hands held together in excitement. "Who wants to go first?"

Not me.

Aimi's hand shot up and I fought the urge to keep my groan in check. I sat beside her and we'd probably move around in a circle meaning I'd either be next or last, neither was good. If I go next, it's not enough time to think of an interesting fact and then if I go last it leaves a lasting impression and if my fact sucked I'd prefer not to be remembered by that.

"Alright, my name is Hirose Aimi, I'm an abstract painter and last year I spent winter break in New York visiting Galleries and seeing a lot of Shakespeare plays."

"Wow…" Ms. Enoki's eyes widened. "Well that must have been exciting!"

Perky, _waaaay _too perky.

"Alright, now how about we have the young lady to your right go next."

The young lady to the right would be me. Way to go Aimi for volunteering. Nothing I did over the past year was as exciting as that. My interesting fact was going to be I joined a band, but that's not really telling the truth and I assume these _bonding _moments are meant to reveal something about ourselves.

"My name is Higurashi Kagome, I'm an artist, and I, um, I…" Crap. I had nothing. "I love the Lion King," I lamely offered, already hanging my head in shame.

"Well we can tell by your shirt," Ms. Enoki said enthusiastically along with a laugh and I remembered why naptime wasn't the only thing I missed about Kindergarten. The teachers never put you down no matter how dumb something you did was. Even when you did something bad they'd baby talk you while you pouted in time out. That was back when life was actually simple.

"Alright, who's next?"

We went around the circle and I realized Aimi was right. Everybody here was a music scout except three other people not including Aimi. Two were dancers and the other one was a photographer, everyone else played an instrument or sang. I learned that Rei played the piano and sung and her interesting fact was that she did a big concert in the park this spring. _Everybody's _interesting fact was better than mine. It had something to do with improving themselves, not some weird elementary school obsession.

Ms. Enoki clapped her hands together and smiled really big at us as she stepped into the middle of the circle. "Okay, I'm Ms. Enoki, but you can call me Ms.E, I am a drama instructor as well as your cabin counselor, and I love Desperate Housewives." She winked at me although it just made my embarrassment worse.

"Now, that we've gotten to know each other a bit, let's go in depth," She looked around the circle with crazed eyes of someone who was too excited. "Let's…"

"Here it comes," Aimi mumbled from beside me.

"It can't be that—"

"Talk relationships!" Ms. Enoki called out and I froze. I froze up like the North Pole and I felt the ice running through my veins and I saw Rei and Sango do the same. "That's what you girls like to talk about these days," She lifted her eyebrows suggestively. "Boys. How they look, what they do, how they can improve, their _skills."_

I almost gagged.

This. Lady. Was. Crazy.

"I told you," Aimi whispered, grimacing. "This is one of her _bonding _methods."

"And she's with us for the entire six weeks?"

"Unfortunately, we're supposed to have another counselor, but she's not here—"

The door slammed open and we all looked away from the lady who stood in the middle of our circle to the one who stood in the doorway. She was a lot younger—early or mid twenties—she had long black hair pulled back and a cap resting over her head. She wore knee length baggy cargos and a blue shirt that matched Ms. Enoki's, but she wasn't gushing like her.

"Oh, we got the perfect pair," Aimi whispered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Perkyopolis and the Strict Bitch. Yeah, this summer just keeps getting better and better."

"The strict bitch?" Yeah, that sounds like a load of fun.

"Two counselors for each cabin," Aimi whispered, eyeing the new lady carefully. "While Ms. E is all fun and feelings, Kiyoko over there is all rules. She's young, but no fun." Aimi's eyes widened. "Ha! That—"

"Rhymed!" I finished at the same time and immediately called, "Jinx! You owe me a soda."

"Whatever. Soda here is free anyways."

"All right girls!" Ms. E called, clapping her hands for our attention once again. "This will be your other counselor, Kiyoko."

The lady stepped into the room, her aura screaming that she wasn't one to fool around with. Her words matched her aura like a charm.

"I am Kiyoko. Not, Ms. Hanada or Ms. H or any other god forsaken nickname, but Kiyoko. I went to camp here, did four semesters at an art school and then came back to work here over the summer while owning my own business for hip-hop dancing during the time you all attend school." She didn't let us react to this information and turned to Ms. E. "Did you take role?"

"Oh! We were getting to know each other and I completely—"

"Akera Yui!" She called, looking at the clipboard in her hand before glancing around circle. A girl shot her hand up and Kiyoko made a mark by her name. "Ando Eri!" And she continued with the roll.

"_Intense,"_ I whispered, Sango and Rei nodded their heads.

"At least she saved us from _relationship _talk," Sango shuddered.

"Asahara Rei!"

Rei raised her hand.

"Why were you so scared? Afraid you'd have to admit to everyone Miroku has a serious disease where he has to stare at the chest of every girl with a loaded rack?"

"I saw you freeze up too, Kags. What's wrong with your relationship?"

"Nothing, thank you very much!"

"I told y'all you would hate bonding moments," Aimi spoke up as she eyed Kiyoko. "Now we have her to even out the perkiness and Ms. E to even out the bitchiness." She scoffed and shook her head. "It's not going to help anything."

"Think positive," I waved off before turning to Rei who sat on my left. "I saw you freeze up there too Rei," I lifted my eyebrows suggestively. "How's your love life treating you?"

"Umm…"

"Fuwa Miki!"

"Do you have some guy pining over you at home?" I pushed, praying it was a lie because that would completely crush Bank.

"Higurashi Kagome!"

I raised my hand. "Were you madly in love with some guy, but he didn't return those feelings?"

"Are you having a bit of déjà vu there, Kags?" Sango teased and I reached my arm over Aimi to shove her.

"Shut up. It all worked out in the end."

"Hirose Aimi!"

"Here!" Aimi called before she looked to Rei with a dangerous grin. "Were you involved in some hot, sexy, dangerous love affair that put all morals aside just to be with your love?"

Rei's face was bright red and she started scratching her arm. "No. That's not—"

"Damnit!" Aimi cut her off snapping her fingers. "That would be so cool if you were. That way those adult romances with half naked guys and women with their fancy salsa dresses almost kissing on the covers wouldn't seem so cheesy."

"That is so true."

"You two," Sango pointed to me and Aimi, shaking her head. "Are crazy! It's like you were made for each other."

"Crazy loves company."

"_Misery _loves company."

"Ugh, that's such a negative way to look at things," I waved off, shaking my head. "No one likes a pessimist, Sango."

"Tanaka Sango!"

Sango only rolled her eyes at me before raising her hand.

"Alright, listen up!" Kiyoko tossed the clipboard on a nearby bed and folded her arms over her chest as we all turned to face her. "We're going to go over some of the basic cabin rules before lunch. All other rules will be explained at the bon fire later tonight."

"Rule number one," she held up a finger. "No leaving your clothes around the cabin. Talent expects all cabins to be in tip top shape for any surprise inspections. Ms. E and I will not be staying here with you—" I quietly thanked all things mighty—"so we expect you, as teenage girls, to know how to pick up after yourselves.

"Rule number two," she added another finger. "You are in and _stay _in by lights out. Sneaking out is _prohibited._"

"Been there, done that," Aimi mumbled. "Punishment was _brutal_."

"Failure to comply with this rule will result in you being given a reasonable and fair punishment."

"_Lies!_"

Kiyoko hearing Aimi's statement glared her direction, shutting Aimi up.

"Rule number three is that you get up when the morning alarm goes off and you will be at breakfast no longer than an hour later. Failure to show will result in you missing a meal." That sounded kind of harsh. "Rule number four is that there is not fraternizing with the opposite or _same _sex. Just because you share a cabin doesn't mean it's okay." She pinned us all with a hard look.

"And now, the most important rule; No food." She looked at us all. "Any kind of food or drink could attract forest animals and the last thing we need is for a cabin of girls to be screaming their heads off because of a few squirrels or raccoons that happened to make their way in. We'll be doing an inspection after lunch and any and all forms of something that is edible will be tossed."

I gulped. For some odd or paranoid reason I thought that lady was staring _right _at me. It would make since though, considering the huge bag of candy I have resting in my duffel bag. Still, the thought of throwing away all that candy Inuyasha had gotten for me out of love made me even sicker than the thought of that lady finding it. That's even worse than the outdoor animals actually sneaking in.

"Alright, now everyone may go to the mess hall for lunch."

I had to find a way to hide that candy.

-x-

"That Kiyoko lady was evil," Sango spoke as she slid her tray down the metal bars, looking for something that would satisfy her appetite. "Did you notice that if you knock off an 'O' and rearrange a letter or two, her name spells Kikyo?"

"That was the first thing I noticed." I picked up a carton of fries and set them down on my tray by my burger. "That's definitely got to be a sign that she's a bitch."

"You need a _sign?_" Aimi asked shocked and we all started cracking up. That's when realized we were one person short.

"Where's Rei?"

"She's…" Sango looked around the mess hall, unable to find a head of purple streaks in the vast sea of campers. "She disappeared."

"Oh, invisibility. Best superpower _ever!" _Aimi declared as she stocked up on deserts.

"What! Are you crazy?" I grabbed two M&M cookies. "Flying has been and always will be at the tippy top of the best superpowers list."

"No way! Flying is way too cliché. It's like… fifth."

"Fifth?"

"Yeah. It goes, Invisibility, Super strength, Telepathist, the ability to shoot lasers from your hands—"

"Laser shooting before _flying!_? Maybe if you put… stretchibility like Elastic Girl, but—"

"Elastic Girl was extremely flexible, Kags. So much it was like she could reshape her body and stretch really far." Sango corrected me. "Stretchibility isn't even a word."

"It's a word in my book. Anyways, there is no _way _laser shooting is above flying. Are you out of your mind!?"

"Alright then, shape shifting, like Beast Boy. Shape shifting is _way _better than flying."

"No it isn't!"

"What! Are _you _out of _your _mind?"

"Considering the fact that both of you aren't ever going to get superpowers, this conversation is beyond ridiculous." Sango gave us a look that showed just how much more mature she was compared to us. "You're _both _out of your minds."

"Pessimist!" Aimi declared, slamming her hand down on the railing for emphasis. "I will get me so kick ass superpowers."

"How? By jumping in a bin of radioactive batter?"

"Don't tempt me."

Sango rolled her eyes, but by the way the corner of her lip was twitching it was completely obvious that she really wanted to smile and laugh at our randomness.

"I'm going to grab a soda. I'll find where y'all are sitting later." Sango picked up her tray and left us.

Aimi shook her head at Sango's retreating form. "She can't handle this awesomeness."

"Mmhmm."

"Kagome!"

I looked up to see Bank jogging towards us and Aimi lifted her brows at him appreciatively. Aimi is great and all, but _man, _I actually missed Bank in the half hour I was forced to sit in the cabin, learning how my high school horrors have come to haunt me over the summer.

"Sexy can I," Aimi mumbled and I hit her arm.

"_No._ You can't."

"Damnit. He's taken?"

"No. But if all goes according to planned, he will be."

I made a resolution this summer when I saw Bank's eyes glued to Rei. That resolution is that I will put those two together no matter what. Unless it's a life or death situation then Bank can just stay single and heartbroken. Really, there are other fish in the sea.

"Hey, Kagome."

"Bank!" I dramatically threw my arms around him. "I missed you so much."

"Yeah. I missed you too."

I pulled back and glared at him. "It would make me feel better if you actually meant it."

"I _do _mean it."

"No. You don't. Considering your tone and the fact that Inuyasha is the only guy I know who will say those words after only being thirty minutes apart, it basically gave you away. _And _the fact that you're loading my tray up with food for you makes me think you really only came to me to skip that ginormous line. You're burying yourself in a deep whole here mister." I placed my hand over my chest and shook my head. "It really hurts to know that I'm nothing but a ticket for food to you. It really does."

Bank smirked and flicked my forehead. "You should be here for Drama."

"Uh uh, no way. Drama is not my forte."

"That _rhymed_," Aimi sang from beside me and I rolled my eyes.

"Bank this is Aimi, Aimi this is Bank. His real name is Bankoutsu, but I find it tiring to keep saying the whole thing."

"Nice to meet ya." Aimi shook Bank's hand and then narrowed her eyes. "What are you here for?"

Uh oh.

"Uh… I'm in a band. I'm the drummer."

To my relief Aimi smiled and let go of Bank's hand. "You're still a music scout, but I like bands and the drummers that are wild."

Bank gave her a funny look. "Uh… Okay."

"I believe you owe me a soda," I told Aimi and she scoffed rolling her eyes. "I'd like a Sprite."

"I'll make you a suicide."

"_That, _was cruel."

"Live with it baby." Aimi lifted her tray and started towards the drinks. "Tootles!"

"Now that she's gone…" I turned to Bank and looked him in the eye. "I need you to do me a favor."

Bank popped a fry in his mouth. "Okay…"

"Did your cabin inspections happen yet?"

"When they go through your stuff looking for food?" He dropped about five different cakes on my plate. "Yeah. Might I add that it's a complete invasion of your privacy? I mean—"

"Okay," I cut him off before he went all rant mode on me. "I need you to hide my candy bag in your cabin until our inspection is over and then you can hide it in the bushes by my cabin right before the bon fire tonight."

Bank raised a brow at me. "Why don't you just let them toss it? Did you not hear about all those creepy critters?"

"Did you not learn over the past year that I am _addicted _to candy? Besides, Inuyasha gave it to me."

"Your clinginess to all things Inuyasha is creeping me out."

"That's just because you're anti-mushy, unless…" My eyes sparked with something Bank should be afraid of. He caught my look and lowered the cookie he was about to cram into his mouth.

"Unless what?"

"Unless it deals with Purple Streaks."

"Her name is Rei," Bank spoke almost defensively and I smirked. He was so caught in my trap.

"Well guess what."

"What?"

"Rei's in my cabin and we have this crazy counselor who's all about bonding and she wants to know about our relationships and guys we have our eyes on." I lifted my eyebrows suggestively at Bank. "Do you want to know Rei's relationship status?"

"No!"

"The fact that you said it too quick and too soon, makes it obvious you really mean yes." Bank opened his mouth to protest, but I continued on. "So, if you do this little favor for me I'll help you with Rei." Not like I wasn't going to already.

Bank was silent and I smiled, patting him on the back.

"I'll take that as a yes."

-x-

The walk from our cabin to the bon fire that rested on some little, mini island in the middle of the lake, actually was a mile. And to make matters worse, there was some crazy steep hill that was a pain to walk up. On the bright side though, I passed the inspection with flying colors.

"And here we are, the most boring place on the planet," Aimi complained as she dropped on a log and I sat down on her left, Sango taking the end of the log on Aimi's right. "It's like the assemblies at school, you have to go over the rules we've already heard billions of times. Even if it's your first time, it's all boring as hell."

"Where is Rei?" I asked again, feeling frustrated. How am I supposed to play matchmaker when the girl keeps disappearing on me.

"Invisibility is the—"

"Let's _not _have that conversation again." Sango cut in with her hand raised. "Please."

"Party pooper." Aimi scanned over the growing population of the super mini island. "Hey Kagome, there's your boyfriend."

"What?" I scrunched my nose up. "My boyfriend is back home."

"Then who's that guy you told me was off limits?"

"He's just my friend," I sighed. This mistake happened a lot and it made Inuyasha want to rip people's heads off. "My best friend."

"If I had a dime for every time I heard _that _one."

"Hey! It's true!"

"Then why did you tell me he's taken?"

"Because when I'm through putting my class A matchmaking skills to work, he will be."

"She really means class F."

"Hey!"

I looked up at Bank and my jaw dropped as he stealthily tried to make his way over to our log. "Is it just me or does Bank look pregnant."

"He is definitely carrying a baby."

That idiot, he really needs to find better hiding places for my _forbidden stash. _When he got to us, I let him have it.

"Where the hell is your brain?" I jabbed my finger in his forehead and he grimaced. "You were supposed to hide it in the _bushes."_

Bank snatched my hand away from his head. "Yeah, well I couldn't make it to the _bushes."_ He pulled the bag of candy from under his shirt and I took it. "Besides, you can now eat all of your glorious candy and increase your chance of cavities sooner."

"I've told you already, you're not my dentist."

"You don't have to be a dentist to know your teeth are going to rot."

I shoved him. "Jerk."

"Hey Kags," Jakotsu greeted as he sat down on the other side of Bank. He looked down at the bag of candy in my hand and tsked, shaking his head. "Still breaking laws I see."

"Rules and Laws are two totally different things."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Aimi cut in, giving me a wide eyed look. "You broke the law before and you gave us that 'I love the Lion King' crap as your interesting fact!?"

Glad to know she thought so much of it. "I can't really say that out loud to my counselors."

"Wimp." Aimi gave me a hard look. "How many times did you break the law?"

"Too many," Bank answered for me and I hit him.

"It was all under a good cause."

Aimi snorted just as some guy stood up demanding out attention. "You're a bad ass Kagome."

Aimi had been right.

The entire bon fire meeting was just like the school assemblies East has at the beginning of each semester. It was two hours of complete boredom and when I'm bored I tend to eat. Let's just sat _a lot _of candy was digested.

I did pay attention to the important stuff like, the camp director is Mr. Otsuka and considering he paid for half my trip, I figured I should remember his name. Also the stuff about how we have to take two art activities a day and one outdoors activity. One has to be in your area of expertise while the other art activity can be in your division or you can branch off and try something new. You can switch a class every week if you end up not liking it.

I also listened to how there will be some big event every Sunday, Saturdays were visitor's days and at the end there's a gallery for Art and Photo Scouts, a Play for Drama Scouts, and the Talent show for the dancers and musicians.

There was a lot of talk about rules and stuff too, but I tuned that out. For some reason, I just have a feeling I'm going to break them all anyways.


	4. Confession 3:I'm afraid of Scary Stories

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_I can never be myself  
How can I when I'm stuck in hell?  
Stutt-ing-stutter-in-stutter-en-ing  
Wanna tell you how I feel inside,  
but every time I go and try  
mutterin-mutter-mutter-en-ing  
Stutt-ing-stutter-in-stutter-en-ing_

_-The Friday Night Boys "Stuttering"_

**Confession #3: I'm Afraid of Scary Stories… and Hojo**

I was on a mission to save the world.

It was like in the movie _The Knowing_, when people started predicting all the disasters on earth. Well, it was my job and the job of all the kids/teens of the world to try and stop the evil people and save the world. I was jumping on a train with the rest of the kid/teen agents while reaching my hand out to help Souta on, but then the train took off, leaving Souta behind only to get crushed by the falling buildings of the city. And then we went on some mission that involved skiing down a mountain slope while 4 Minutes was playing in my head. Since it was a dream, I didn't remember much after that, but at the very end we failed our mission and the entire world blew up with the exact same ending picture as the movie 'The Knowing'. The _exact _same one.

I'm never watching 'The Knowing' again.

The really weird part though, was that after my dream was over 4 Minutes was still playing. Which is super weird because guess what? The world was already burnt to a frickin' crisp!

"_Shut that damn thing off!"_

I woke up to the sound of a very pissed off Aimi and realized 4 minutes was actually blasting through the camp. A good question would be, _why._

At least it would explain why music was flowing through my dreams. That happens to me a lot, actually. Like that one time when I fell asleep with my headphones in right after finishing Twilight; I had a dream where Bella and Edward were on a boat and Edward was reciting the lyrics to Ray J's One Wish. Guess what song I was listening to in my sleep?

Stories also influence my dreams. For example, in Kindergarten our teacher told us a story on how a troll wouldn't let a little girl cross a bridge because he wanted to eat her—what teacher reads little kids _that!?!—_and that night I had a nightmare where I was playing hide-n-seek with a troll and if he found me he was going to eat me. When I tried to runaway to Disney World he chased me there while riding on a giant T-Rex. And then the time my friends from Summer Day camp in sixth grade told me the story of how if you treat dolls bad they'll come to life and kill you—The Doll House and The Meanest Doll in the World books didn't help. I swear that night the life sized doll I had jammed in my closet for years was mouthing it was going to kill me. I treated that thing like an angel until Souta threw it out a window and I was finally free. That way if it really does come to life, it will kill Souta, not me.

"What's going on?" Sango asked from below me as she climbed out of bed. I looked towards Aimi who was, in all honesty, throwing a hissy fit. Her hair was disheveled so she looked like a mad woman and she had picked up her pillow and threw it across the room, snarling when it just barely missed a girl's head.

"Well…" I looked at her for a second before looking to Rei and Sango to see they both shared my wide eyed look. "It's pretty obvious you're not a morning person."

"No, I'm fine," Aimi grumbled as she jumped off her bunk. "But waking up in the morning to the _worst music in the world, _really knows how to make them unpleasant." She sneered.

"So… you hate this song?"

"I _despise _it." She moved towards her suitcase and started rifling through it. "But the fact that Talent insists on waking us up by blasting music isn't a good idea to start with."

So _that's _why the music was playing.

"I wouldn't say that," Rei offered sitting up in her own bed. "It's better than my alarm or a bull horn."

"Very true," I agreed, carefully climbing down the ladder. "And the song isn't that bad."

"Well I hate it. And trust me; they play some shitty wake up music." Aimi pulled out clothes and dropped them beside her before pulling out a towel and washcloth.

"What are you doing?"

"What everyone else is doing," Aimi answered, motioning around the cabin of girls slowly rising from the dead and heading for their luggage. "Did you forget that you have to be at the mess hall an hour after the music cuts off? Or that there is one showering house and way too many girls who need to wash?"

_Time is waiting  
We only got four minutes to save the world  
No hesitating  
Grab a boy  
Grab a girl  
Time is waiting  
We only got four minutes to save the world  
No hesitating  
We only got four minutes huh four minutes_

"Looks like the music has finally stopped," Aimi looked at us with eyes gleaming mischievously. "The war begins."

"_What?" _Sango was frozen with shock, but I was already grabbing clothes out my trunk as the entire cabin seemed to go into a frenzy. I have serious patience issues, as in, I don't have any patience.

"Wouldn't it be more productive if they scheduled certain times for each cabin?"

"If you haven't realized, there are a lot of issues with this camp." Aimi threw her towel over her shoulder and stood back up. "Besides, a lot of the girls wash before the wake up calls for privacy reasons and then the cold water usually makes showering a rushed process. But there are scheduled times for the night wash."

"It doesn't matter," I grabbed my towel and started for the door. "I am not waiting in a long line for a bunch of girls to shower."

-x-

Okay, so maybe whether the shower is hot or cold really does matter, because having to take a shower in what feels like freezing rain, really knows how to bring on a crappy mood. I bet they do it on purpose to make sure you're awake for the day of hell they plan on throwing at you. And I thought I was going to _enjoy _camp.

"Turn that frown upside down!" Aimi sang as she moved down the line beside me, surveying the breakfast options that all seemed so good it was hard to choose. I had decided to take a little bit of everything.

"It's good to see your mood has made a turn for the better," Sango yawned. She was more like me; not liking early mornings or cold showers. "You seemed like a bitch earlier."

"Ah, just first day blues," Aimi waved off, reaching for a plate of French toast. "It happens all the time."

For some crazy reason, Aimi wakes up as a bitch, but after a freezing shower she is as happy as Ms. E. aren't cats supposed to hate the water?

"You threw a pillow at a girl."

"It didn't hit her. Besides, now I am happy and can't wait to get on with trial day!"

"Trial day?"

"Yeah, you know; when you try out a bunch of different courses to figure out which ones you want to take for the first week. You go with your cabin and each activity is with a group of cabins mixed together." Aimi grabbed a bowl of fruit. "You look for which 'artsy' class you want to take that involves what you were recognized for, one extra 'artsy' class and then after lunch you look for your outdoor activity."

"Do they have swimming?"

I am still absolutely, positively in love with swimming despite how much I complain about practice. It's going to be kind of hard to go practically an entire summer without getting in the water. And it would be a lie if I said that competition last year didn't boost my ego to the sky because it did. It really did. Now it's my job to show my mad skills to the world.

"They have swimming in the lake but don't go at night." Aimi gave me a serious look. "That place is haunted. Two years ago this one girl went at night and—"

"Stop!" I gave them a serious look. "Do not start talking about disappearances of girls because not only am I a girl at this camp, but I've learned that stories influence your dreams and I really don't need a nightmare about being kidnapped at band camp."

"Its art camp Kagome," Sango corrected.

"Whatever, it's run by musicians according to Aimi so I can call it band camp."

"The politically correct name would be Talent though."

"Sango, would you stop making me feel like an idiot, because I am honestly feeling like an idiot."

"I just pointed out the fact that you always overlook things, Kags. Like basically everything that was said in the assembly last night." She said it with her head tilted and a knowing smirk on her lips. Typical Sango… acting so… _mature._

"_Whatever." _I lifted my tray from the rail and headed for the back end of one of the long wooden tables where the condiments were set up. It was where we sat yesterday; now Bank and Jakotsu wouldn't have to look for us.

Sango sat beside me and Aimi took a seat across from me and…

"Damnit!" I looked around me for a head of black and purple hair. "Where is Rei?"

"Maybe she got tired of us," Sango shrugged as if this wasn't a big deal even though it was. I thought we had all made a connection and it sucks to think that Rei didn't feel that. It really sucked. And it made matchmaking a whole hell of a lot harder.

"Or maybe she's allying with the enemy," Aimi offered, her blue eyes narrowed at someone behind me. I looked over my shoulder and then turned around completely to gape at the sight of Rei hugging some tall guy with shaggy brown hair and a silver hoop through one of his ears, wearing a pair of light wash jeans with rips and a white t-shirt. Somehow in that simple clothing he looked _amazing._

"Oh my god," Sango gasped as she stared too. "Who is _that?_"

"The devil's spawn," Aimi snarled and I looked back over my shoulder to see her still glaring at him while stabbing her eggs. "Teshima Ichiro, pianist and singer who is the king of camp. He was here last year and he has the biggest stick up his ass. He thinks he's higher than everyone here. Bastard…"

In other words, he would be a Prep.

"And somehow he's obviously friends or more with Rei," Sango said slowly, trying to wrap her head around the fact only to give up. Shaking her head and turning it back around I followed suit. "The world is a crazy place."

"This sucks!" I declared slamming my fist down on the table. "This is going to completely crush Bank's fragile heart. When he comes in here to see _that," _I pointed over to my shoulder in Rei and Ichiro's general direction. "He's going to completely give up on love all together. It's going to be tragic how Bank falls into depression and grows up to be lonely and then will commit suicide and I'll be there crying over his grave and then—"

"Considering she doesn't even know his name, I highly doubt all that is going to happen if Bank see's them together," Sango rationalized as she poured syrup on her waffles. "Also, Bank is saner than you and probably won't jump to the conclusion of them being an item until he gets all the facts. Honestly Kagome, _you_ should start getting the facts first."

"I'll think about it." I looked back over my shoulder to see Rei and Ichiro now sitting together laughing at something some other inhabitant of that table had said. I turned back around and looked down at my overflowing plate suddenly having lost my appetite. "God, this sucks."

"Good morning, Kagome!" Jakotsu sang as he slid into the space beside Aimi and gave me a bright, good morning smile. "Doesn't the fresh outdoor air just make you smile?"

No.

"Where's Bank?"

"He was getting some orange juice a second ago. I think he's—"

"Here." Bank's deep voice interrupted Jakotsu's sentence and he dropped down in the seat beside me. His hair was a mess and his shirt seemed extremely wrinkled and he was wearing the dirtiest pair of shoes he owned. That idiot, he can't walk around looking like _that _when his competition is a frickin' Greek _God._

Bank yawned and rubbed the sleep from his eyes motioning to Sango he said "Please pass the syrup." Sango handed it over. "Thanks."

We all sat in silence for a while, just eating. I nibbled on a piece of bacon, trying to be patient before I delivered my verdict on Bank's obvious apathetic attitude towards his wardrobe. About twenty seconds of just the sound of eating, I lost it.

"Alright. You can't—"

"Bank!"

"Bankster!"

"Bankie-_poo!_" The two voices who had interrupted me said in unison before cracking up. Bank's fork froze about an inch away from his mouth and he forced a smile onto his red face as the two guys slapped his back and then sat down at our table with us.

I looked over to Sango and Aimi who just shrugged their shoulders. I then turned back to Bank, waiting for him to introduce us, but he just kept eating. Finally I cleared my throat demanding attention. Bank looked up at me and it was like a light finally went off in his head.

"Oh! Right." He swallowed his food and then motioned to the two guys who joined our table. He pointed to the red head with the tall wiry frame that could barely see through his long bangs. "This is Sho and he's," He pointed to the guy in the gray sweats and a white tank that showed off his muscled arms. He had jet black hair, green eyes, and a little stubble that gave him that mature edge. "Raiden. Sho plays the bass so he can take Suikotsu's place in the band and Raiden is a break-dancer. They're in our cabin and just happened to overhear Jak." Bank glared at his brother who just shrugged. "Sho, Raiden; this is Kagome, Sango, and Aimi."

"Hello chickadees," Raiden offered a smile with a small wave and Aimi's face lit up like a Christmas tree. Victim number two of Higurashi Kagome's matchmaking plans for the summer.

"Hey," I smiled back and Sango and Aimi waved.

"Wait a second," Bank looked back up from his plate and looked at each of our faces carefully. "Where's Rei?"

"She's uh…" I struggled to find a good excuse. "She's—"

"Fraternizing with the enemy," Aimi seethed her eyes once again narrowed in their direction. We all looked over and they were cracking up at something again. I saw Bank's face fall a bit and I immediately felt the need to put some hope in him.

"They're just friends," I hurried to say as we all looked away again. "Just friends."

"You and Inuyasha were just friends."

Touché.

"You and I are just friends," I countered placing a comforting arm around Bank's shoulders. "Aimi said he's a real ass so Rei will see his true colors sooner or later and that will be you're in. You shouldn't just jump to conclusions without the facts anyways." I purposely looked at Sango who just shook her head.

"Turn that frown upside down!" Aimi sang again.

"Yeah Bankster," Sho spoke up through a mouth full of pancakes. "Don't' let some girl bring you down."

"What are y'all talking about?" Bank spoke in a defensive tone. "I didn't even like her. I didn't even _know _her."

"You knew her name," Jak pointed out.

"I know Pete Wentz's name, but I don't know him," Bank pointed out. "The point is I can't just like someone in one day. It's ridiculous. And stop telling everybody stuff, Kagome."

"I didn't tell them anything." I just dropped some very unsubtle hints. But, I never said, 'Bank is in love with Rei.' Never.

"Didn't tell them what?"

We all tensed up at the sound of Rei's voice present. We all looked over to the girl purple streaks and I kind of smiled while Bank's face went beet red and he looked like he had stopped breathing. Yeah. He _really _didn't like her.

"Hey Rei," Sango spoke up. "Where do you keep disappearing off to?" she asked as if we weren't staring at her just seconds ago. A better question would be how she got here so fast.

"Oh, my friend from back home came here last summer and he's back so I've been with him for a while." Sango gave me a smug look but I ignored it, turning to Bank to give him the smug look and he just rolled his eyes.

"But, um, some girl came over and was all over Ichiro and she seemed really bitchy so I left. Can I sit?"

"Of course." I deliberately slid over closer to Sango and kicked Bank so he would move over so there was room for Rei to sit between us.

Rei placed her tray down and sat in the space on the bench between us. She turned to Bank and smiled and he looked like he went into cardiac arrest.

"Hey Bankie," She smiled and Bank went beet red. "So, am I ever going to learn your real name?"

"I-I-It's um… It's B-B-Bank. I-I Mean, it's…"

_Bank you idiot! You're ruining everything! Learn how to speak for God's sake_! Does Bank not _see _who his competition is? He really needs to man up.

"His name is Bank—"

"My name is Bankoutsu," Bank said in one straight sentence, cutting me off, and he shot me a glare. What the hell? "But everyone calls me Bank because Bankoutsu is too much to keep saying."

"Alright then." Rei placed the cup she was sipping down and held out her hand to Bank. "It's nice to finally meet you Bank." Bank took her hand and she gave him a blinding smile and Bank all but melted.

"I thought you didn't l—"

Bank was smart enough to elbow Sho in the ribs before he kept going with that sentence. My phone buzzed to life then and I pulled it out of my back pocket and flipped it open, reading the notification that I had received a text from Inuyasha (about time). I opened it up and smiled as I read it.

_G'morning_

So simple and sweet.

Perfect.

-x-

"Hold on there, Lover boy," I stopped Bank, pulling on his long braid like a leash and reeled him back into me. We were about to split up with our cabins for 'Trial Day' but I had some things I wanted to run over with Bank first.

"What?" Bank asked, looking over to the retreating backs of Jak, Raiden, and Sho. "We're about to split up, Kags. Hurry up."

"Why did you glare at me in there?" I demanded to know. "I was trying to save your stuttering a—"

"_I_ wanted to be the one to tell her my name," Bank cut me off. "It makes it more memorable that way."

"Awww, you _are _a romantic," I teased, jabbing him in his side, Bank squirmed just a bit.

"Stop it, Kags." Bank smiled as he pushed my hands away. "Now, I gotta go so—"

"Wait!" He sighed impatiently. "It's quick."

"I'm waiting."

"Well, no offense, but did you _see _Rei's friend? Given they're just friends, he may have ulterior motives and you can't compete with him looking like…" I motioned to his clothing. "This."

"Kagome."

"No, no, I'm not trying to be a bitch about it, but as your matchmaker, I'm going to tell it like it is. There may be some tough competition and you need to step up to the challenge. You're a good looking guy, Bank, but you—"

"Hold up a sec." I stopped talking. "_Matchmaker?"_

Did I say that out loud?

"I better go catch up before they leave me behind." I started turning away from him but Bank grabbed my hand, laughing. "Let me go!"

"Is this why you're suddenly taking an interest in my love life? Your summer activity is matchmaking this year?"

"I've always taken an interest in your love life. It was just nonexistent at the time. So now that you are actually taking an interest in someone I just have to jump on the opportunity. This is what friends _do."_

"I think it's best if you just stay out of—"

"Well too bad for you because you can't tell me what to do." Bank was about to say something else when I offered him my pleading look. "Please, please, _pleeeease? _I can help you get to know her, I'll be your inside man." Or woman. "Come on Bank, please."

"Kagome—"

"This is something I never got to experience with Inuyasha because I was in love with him, but this could be part of my quest in becoming a great best friend. _Please."_

"Ka—"

"Puh-_leeeeeeeease."_

"Just don't screw it up."

"Thank you!" I squealed as I hugged Bank around his torso and pulled away. "You won't regret it, I promise. By the end of the week…" I trailed off. I really don't like saying stuff considering if it doesn't happen Bank has a tendency of shoving it in my face. "I won't let you down."

"I know."

-x-

By the time the Crazy Frogs had made it to their first art activity I was exhausted. We had done photography. That I don't plan on ever taking because there are way too many buttons to remember which did what and the dark room was just so… dark. Then we did a whole bunch of different music courses, but I wasn't choosing which one of those I was picking until I found out what Bank was taking. Then we just had a 45 minute dance class with Kiyoko and I was about to pass out twenty minutes into the class. Then she kept yelling at me because I was off beat and always stumbling and that just does a lot to a person's self esteem, I mean I already know I can't dance. She doesn't have to announce it to the world. In short, I will _never _take that class, ever.

Now though, picking through paints in the back of the art cabin, all seemed right in the world. This, _this, _is why I chose to spend six weeks away from home to come to Talent.

"Hey Kagome!" I looked over my shoulder to look at Aimi who had called me from her seat beside Rei and diagonal from Sango. "Grab us some red paint too!"

"'Kay!"

I went back to picking through paints, grabbing practically every color of the rainbow, going happily about my business. That was until some massive jerk pushed me from my back, almost making me spill all the paint bottles.

"What's your problem?" I snapped, turning around, struggling to keep the bottles in my arms. "Can't you see I'm _standing _here?"

It was a guy from a different cabin and he had short brownish red hair with straight bangs that hung right above his eyebrows. He was wearing basketball shorts and white t-shirt. He wasn't hot, but not ugly. I'd say he was… moderately cute. Yeah, that's how I'd describe him.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, offering a sheepish smile. "I'm kind of a klutz and tripped over my own two feet. I really didn't mean to push you."

"Oh…" Great, now I felt bad for being a bitch and overreacting. "I'm really sorry I flipped on you like that. I was just… caught off guard."

"No problem. Oh! My name's Hojo by the way." Hojo offered his hand and I took it to shake.

"My name's Kagome… by the way."

Hojo laughed and held my hand for a second too long. "Wow, you have _really _soft hands."

I eased my hand out of his grip, getting uncomfortable. "Yeah, well I hear that happens to hands that aren't worked. I haven't had a job since I dumped ice tea all over one of the customers." It's still such a touchy subject to bring up most of the time.

"You're funny too!" He laughed a little too loud and I forced a smile. He stopped laughing and squinted at me for a second. "Wow. You're really pretty too."

Well, that's kind of… random. And uncomfortable.

"Thanks."

"A pretty girl like you must have a boyfriend."

Well that explains a lot. He's trying to hit on me. FYI though, he should try better things than some corny, overused lines he got off of T.V. Really? where's the creativity!?

"Actually, I do have a boyfriend." _And if he were here he'd stomp you ten feet into the ground _before _threatening the use of your arms if you ever touch me._

If only I had the guts to say that out loud.

"Guess that makes me lucky_," _he gave me an unsettling grin. "I can admire your beauty without getting killed."

I'd like to see how that plan of his works on Visitors' Day. Or when Bank get's a load of this creep.

"Yeah…" I trailed off not exactly sure what to say. "So, I'm going to go back to my group now." I turned around and then looked back over my shoulder and forced another smile. "Nice meeting you Hojo."

"You too, Kagome."

I hurried back over to my easel in front of Aimi's and distributed the paints before leaning over to my left just a bit to see Aimi around my easel.

"Hey, Aimi."

"I think I'm going to do hip hop as my extra course this time," Aimi spoke, not even bothering to ask me what I was about to ask.

"_What!?" _It would be a lie to say I wasn't shocked. "But we both sucked at that and couldn't breathe after a while. And what about Kiyoko and the Strict Bitch and your hate for dancers and musicians because they rule the camp?"

"Hey," Rei joined in. "I'm insulted by that comment."

"Ditto," Sango agreed.

"I don't hate _all _dancers and musicians and I wasn't out of breath once during that session. Demon, better endurance, remember?"

Oh. I guess I was the only one who couldn't breathe.

"I'm sorry, _why _are you taking that course again?"

"Because Raiden is a break dancer and will most likely take that class too, _d__uh!_"

Well, that's a good reason to go tire yourself out everyday then.

"Aimi's got a crush!" Sango sang, snickering with Rei as she slapped random colors on her sheet.

"And I'm not ashamed to admit it." Aimi smiled proudly at herself and she looked in my direction. "You were going to ask me something before you went off on that tangent."

"Oh! Right, I was." I craned my neck over the top of my easel and saw Hojo looking right at me. I whispered, "What's up with that Hojo guy?"

"Who?" Sango asked and I pointed to him; she and Rei both looked at him.

"Oh, Hojo. He's nice." I let out a sigh of relief. "…enough."

So much for relief.

"What do you mean by _enough?_" I demanded to know.

Aimi just shrugged her shoulders. "He's not evil enough to gain any enemies and he's a good artist, does portraits. He'll probably take this art class" I waited for her to continue. "He's been here since… forever and he's really well known."

"I'm still not getting the _enough_ part."

"It's just that every year he's been here he's broken that no fraternizing rule… twice each summer."

How does a 'moderately cute' guy pull that off?

"Good to know."

"Why the sudden interest?" Sango asked. She then whipped her head around to pin me with a hard glare. "You're not going to leave Inuyasha for _him _are you?"

"No! Are you crazy?" After all that crap I went through last year to get Inuyasha, it's going to take a lot more than some creeper with corny pick up lines to break us up. "I just think he was hitting on me a second ago."

"Ooh."

"That's not good."

"Inuyasha is going to _flip._"

I looked at them as they all shook their heads in disapproval. "It's not like I was _asking _for his attention!"

"But you got it," Aimi pointed out. "Look, my advice is to just steer clear of the creeper guy who is still probably staring at you." We all looked back around. Yep. He was still staring. "I know you don't want him, but Hojo has issues with seeing obvious boundary lines when he's going after his prey."

Well this is just great. Not only do I have to hassle 'artsy' classes and making sure Bank is more presentable in front of Rei, but now I have to fend off some massive creep who doesn't get the meaning of: _no._

Summer fun my ass.

_**-0-0-0-0-0-**_


	5. Confession 4: I'm an Amateur Matchmaker

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_I watched the world float to the  
Dark side of the moon  
After all I knew it had to be something  
To do with you  
I really don't mind what happens now and then  
As long as you'll be my friend at the end_

_-3 Doors Down "Kryptonite"_

**Confession #4: I'm an Amateur Matchmaker**

"Alright, take Art History with me then. You won't get yelled at for not being able to draw a straight line in that class."

"Yeah, but I'll get yelled at for falling asleep out of complete boredom." Bank swallowed the mouthful of food he was speaking through and downed it with some soda. "Besides, you hate history Kagome. I'm not going to make you sit through that torture just for me."

It's true I've never acquired the right taste for history since it's hard to acquire a taste for anything if your mind is always a million miles away. Except for the Greek god myths that are basically the basis for the over dramatic soap operas today, I hate history. Absolutely hate it. I have this nagging feeling though that Bank is using this shortcoming as a way to weasel out of taking an art class with me.

"I'll take history with you," Jakotsu volunteered and I just smiled at him. Jakotsu loved history for some crazy reason (And Lit). He took AP European Lit _and_ European History last year—the hardest AP classes—and got an A. Not just a 92.5 where it rounds up to an A, but a legit A. For a guy who loves beer and partying, Jakotsu is really smart. If I ever had a class with him, he would have definitely been my cheating buddy. Don't worry I am highly aware of how sinful cheating is, now.

We were at lunch after half of trial day, making final decisions on the 'artsy' courses we were planning to take for the first week on the forms we were given when we entered the mess hall. I was trying to get Bank to 'broaden his horizons' and take an art class with me though I know Bank _really _sucks at art. I'm not doing it to prove that art is just another one of the many things I kick Bank's ass in but more so to ensure my own protection if Hojo popped up in another class I might take. I just couldn't tell Bank that because he might go hunt Hojo down and threaten him and I actually enjoyed the calm waters we're sailing through.

"Bank, camp is about new experiences. Experience something _new."_

"I'll learn to play the piano."

"Yeah, so _Rei _can teach you," Sango teased and Bank glared as his face turned cherry red.

"I _don't _like her."

"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that."

Said girl was sitting with her buddy Ichiro just laughing it up two tables ahead. Whatever bitch it was that was clinging to him earlier should really think about making a reappearance soon because I can practically hear Bank's poor, fragile heart breaking.

"Why don't we all just take the songwriting class," Bank suggested, effectively changing the subject. "That's something everyone can take."

"_Almost _everyone," Aimi intervened. "Just because most people here can sing or play an instrument doesn't mean we all can." She snapped her thick pretzel stick in half and shoved a piece in her mouth. "With every majority there is a minority. But whatever, I'm taking that class with Kiyoko anyways."

"Which is completely—"

"You're taking dance class with the evil chick?" Raiden cut me off, pausing his burger's journey to his mouth.

Aimi nodded.

"Me too!" He smiled cheekily at Aimi. "If we get the same session we're walking together."

"Sounds good." Aimi then gave me a look that said taking the class where the devil was breathing down your necked 24/7 is actually worth it.

"You actually signed up for that class?" Sho mumbled through a mouthful of food and he was still shoving more bread into it. "That lady's a bitch."

"Not to me," Raiden smirked.

"Yeah, because you nailed everything she threw at you."

"What can I say, I'm the best. And," Raiden swallowed his food. "Kiyoko is _hot."_

Aimi's entire face fell.

"And that makes the torture all worth the while," Sho responded and they both laughed.

"Well there goes your brilliant plan," I mumbled and somehow, from her spot across the table, Aimi heard me and kicked me in my shin, making me wince.

"Okay… so everyone else is fine with the songwriting then?"

"Yep."

"Uh-huh."

"Okay."

"No!"

Bank sighed as if he was expecting me to ruin the almost unanimous decision. "Why am I not surprised?"

"I just think it would benefit us all if we just tried something new to expand our expertise in the art field. It'll be fun."

"You know, when you get really passionate about trying to convince everybody to do something, it usually means something." I waited for Bank to continue. "There's something in it for you."

I feigned shock. "How could you even _think_ that? What could I be getting out of _Art History_?"

"I don't know…" Bank turned to give me a suspicious look. "You tell me."

"Maybe…" I had to think fast. "Maybe I'm just passionate about experiencing something new with all my friends."

"It's not really experiencing something new though if you're already well established in the art field," Sango pointed out.

"Fine then, let's all take photography then."

"Uh… no."

"Nuh-uh."

"Nope."

"Sorry."

"You know what," I crossed my arms over my chest. "I can't stay around people who can't think _outside _the box. It's rather boring."

"Think of it this way," Bank offered. "You can just use some of the songs you have already written for the songwriting class so you don't have to do any work unless you really want to. That way you can just slack off or help plan out Nameless stuff."

Typical Bank, always thinking about the band. However, the slacking off part really did catch my attention.

"Nameless?"

"Band name," Sango explained to Aimi.

"Oh."

"Fine," I agreed. "Songwriting it is."

"Good. Now that that's settled," We all looked to Bank, waiting for him to continue. "I have news concerning the band. We have practice at 7:00."

"What!" I looked at Bank with wide eyes. "Come on, Bank. It's only the first day. Have you ever heard of a _break?"_

"Not in my vocabulary."

That workaholic! Imagine what his grades would be like if he used this kind of work ethic in his schoolwork.

"I actually have to go with Kagome on this one," Sho spoke up. Finally! Someone else with a brain! "I mean, that's like… right after dinner! I need time for my food to digest."

"Before you play the bass?" Aimi raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you can't just go jamming on a full stomach. It just doesn't work that way."

"Somehow I find that hard to believe."

"Full stomachs are an irrelevant factor," Bank declared, demanding attention. "The big picture here is that we have a performance coming up Sunday and Sho doesn't know any of the songs. On top of that we need to actually pick the song. And I already reserved the cabin so there's not really much of a discussion."

"Who died and made you king?"

"When did you even find the time to make a reservation?" Sango asked. "We were out with our cabins all day."

"I did it this morning, before breakfast."

"Well you know how to get a jumpstart on things."

"So anyways, we have practice after dinner in cabin 4."

Like hell we do. There is no way I'm going to sit around and watch on the first day of camp when I could be spending the night… I don't know, exploring or something. Better yet, I could be working my matchmaking magic and getting to know Rei better, or Ichiro and the deal with him. Either way, I don't have time to be sitting around.

"Yeah… I think I'm just going to hang with Aimi and Raiden actually. Get a nice big breath of fresh air."

"Actually we're going to work on some moves," Raiden spoke up and Aimi choked on her drink, pounding her chest when it went down the wrong pipe.

"You are?"

"We are?" Aimi wheezed, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Of course! We have definitely got to be up to par for Kiyoko's class tomorrow. And if they're practicing, then we're going to practice to."

I couldn't help. I laughed out loud at Aimi's distress.

"Really…" Aimi trailed off as she started formulating a plan to get out of it. "Well, you see, I was actually thinking we'd catch the movie tonight. You know, practice by resting so we're not completely worn out tomorrow morning."

Every night, by the main lodge, they have a movie playing. Tonight I think it was "The Butterfly Effect" featuring Ashton Kutcher.

"No, that's not going to work." Raiden shook his head, not even considering the prospect. "That is just an excuse for lazy people and we're not lazy people." He looked at Aimi. "Right?"

"No…" Aimi mumbled, stabbing her salad. "We sure aren't."

I'm supposed to be sympathetic, understanding, kind, I know I am, but the whole situation is just so damn funny it's hard to keep a straight face. And for once I wasn't alone. Sango was cracking up with me.

"What's so funny?" Bank asked, giving us a knitted brow.

"Nothing! Nothing at _all." _Sango answered and it just made me laugh more.

"Oh… I get it," Jakotsu said, nudging Bank with his elbow. "It's one of those _girly _situations."

"Oh." Bank scrunched up his nose. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

"What do you _think _we're laughing about?" I asked, still grinning like an idiot.

"It doesn't matter," Bank shrugged, jamming his mouth full with chips. "I just _don't _want to know." He swallowed. "So you'll be at cabin 4 at 7:00? I mean now that you're finally a _legit_ manager, you can't just slack off because it's the first day of camp."

Yes, I'm finally manager, but I had to go through a hell of a lot of work to get there. Like, for instance, finding gigs-which has to be the most frustrating task in the universe. I'm pretty sure I was about to rip my hair out and leave a couple of bald spots more than once just going hunting for places that needed entertainment. And then I had to help with the instruments, the music, and what songs to perform at certain gigs—apparently you can't go all out at a wedding. It was hell. _But, _I got my status moved up in the band, so, yeah, I'm pretty happy with all the blood, sweat, and tears I put in to getting there.

"Do I really have a choice now?"

"Not really."

"Maybe we can go see how Nameless is," Aimi suggested, still trying to get out of revealing to Raiden she really _can't _dance. "Sounds interesting."

"No can do," Bank shut her down, shaking his head. "No one is going to hear us sing until we perform on Sunday. Practices will be strictly private."

"Yeah, we want to blow you all away," I added, nodding my head. Everybody loves a good surprise.

"Or you guys really suck and don't want anyone to find out too soon," Raiden piped up, snickering.

"Take that back!"

"It would be awful if you guys get booed off the stage," Aimi joined in. "God, that would _suck."_

"We're not getting booed off the stage," I defended. "We're going to kick everyone else's sorry asses and we'll be the ones who get the last laugh!"

"I agree with Kagome," Sango threw in and Jak nodded his head in agreement. "We came in second at the Battle of the Bands."

"If you're not first you're last," Aimi snickered and she and Raiden both fell into a fit of laughter. I can't be the only one who is offended that they find our demise hilarious. Honestly, that's just rude.

"You two," Bank finally spoke after being silent for so long. He gave a pointed glare to Aimi and Raiden, "are about to be kicked off the island."

-x-

"Anybody for croquet?"

"Nope."

"Pass."

"No."

"Maybe," Jakotsu said, adjusting his guitar strap around his shoulder. "I've been thinking about becoming more sophisticated and mature and stuff. You know, since I'm going to college and all next year. British golf seems the way to go."

"Yeah, and now we have to find another guitarist. And it's not golf, it's…" Bank trailed off, scratching the back of his head. "It's not golf."

"One, Sango or Kagome could be the guitarist and two, it so definitely _is _golf."

"So is it a yes or no?" I asked again, trying to get us back on topic.

"I said maybe."

"They don't have a maybe box; it's either yes or no. Pick one."

For our outdoors activity we were given a long sheet with all the activities that were offered. Beside each there was a _'Yes, I'd take this' _box or a _'No, I wouldn't take this' _box and you're supposed to go through the entire list and decide on them all, this way if you don't get what you want you have about a hundred alternatives. Since I am now manger of the band I'm the person whose supposed to go through the list and mark everybody's while they set up for practice.

"Just draw a box in the middle, write _maybe _above it and check _maybe._" Jakotsu suggested as he began tuning. "It's just," he mimed hitting a STAPLES button, "that easy."

"I'm checking no," I decided, marking the _'No, I wouldn't take this' _box on Jak's sheet and moved on. "Lacrosse?"

"Me!" Sango shouted and Bank flinched.

"We are in the same room, you know?"

"Anyone else?"

"Uh… yeah," Sho finally decided. "Put me down too."

"Okay," I marked no on everyone else's sheets. "Kickball?"

"YES!"

Finally! A unanimous decision.

"Alright, put a pause on the selection," Bank said, pulling his shirt over his head. "Take notes on songs we can do for Sunday. Ones we're good at."

_No, I'm going to say we need to perform the songs we suck at. _Do I really look like an idiot? I kept my mouth shut though. It turns out that it's a lot easier to just go along with Bank instead of fighting him on every decision. It saves a lot of time.

"Okey-dokey." I picked up the notepad and pen I brought with me. "Isn't it cover week this weekend?"

"Yeah," Bank finished adjusting the cymbals and picked his lucky sticks up off the ground. "So we'll work on covers we all know before teaching Sho some of the original songs."

"What song are you—"

"Can't Stop, Red Hot Chili Peppers," Sho immediately suggested. "You can't go wrong with that. The opening always get's everybody hyped."

"I second that!"

"Yeah but…"

"'But' what?" I asked, lifting a brow at Bank. "It's a kick ass song. You have to do it"

"But—"

"It's not really a good song for me to sing and he probably really wants to do the drumming." Sango turned to look at Bank. "Is that right?" Bank nodded his head pathetically and gave her those big, blue, puppy eyes. "I thought so." She turned back to me, shrugging her shoulder. "It's the usual."

I cocked my head to the side. "Bank."

"I'm a _drummer _Kagome. The debut of our band should have me as the _drummer. _Get it?"

Yes, I got it, and it made complete sense, but I _really _love that song.

"How 'bout Sango just sings the song to the best of her ability first, Bank can do drums to get it out of his system, and if we decide that there is no other song we can do, Bank will just have to sing."

"Done!" Bank automatically agreed, not giving much of a second thought, and ran to take his seat behind the drums. He is such a kid at times.

"Thanks Sho," I looked over to him and smiled. "Your peace settlement skills are truly appreciated."

Sho smiled and that was all I could see because his bangs were so long and thick. I think I'd faint if I ever actually saw his eyes.

"No problem."

"Are we going to just sit here all day or are we gonna play!?" Bank played an impatient beat. "Let's go!"

"Somebody's bossier than usual," Sango mumbled as she took her spot in front of the mike. "I'm _waiting _here."

"We all know this, right," Bank asked for confirmation.

"_Yes!"_

"Just checking," Bank shrugged and he did a once over to make sure everyone was ready before counting them off. "Alright then, one, two, three—"

He stopped counting and started playing not long before Sho came in with the bass. He was good. Then Jak came in on the guitar and I, personally just love the guitar for this song. Jakotsu dropped out again and only Bank and Sho played, building up slowly. Then Jak played again before Sho and Bank went super crazy and then just dropped out, letting Jakotsu do his solo.

Gah! I just love that one part. The opening is what made me fall in love with the song. And the words,_ shin dig, defunkt, _and _bebop, _but hey, that's just me.

Bank joined back in and Sango started singing. She's not bad at singing it, she's perfectly fine actually, but when we used Bank once, there was no denying that he owned the song. Too bad Bank is set on being a hundred percent drummer.

_Can't stop addicted to the shin dig  
Chop top he says I'm gonna win big  
Choose not a life of imitation  
Distant cousin to the reservation_

Sho joined back in and he was really good. Like a Flea jr. in the making. His handwork was good.

_Defunkt the pistol that you pay for  
This punk the felling that you stay for  
In time I want to be your best friend  
Eastside love is living on the West-end_

Jak brought his mouth close to his own mike and began singing back up.

_Knock out but boy you better come to  
Don't die you know the truth is some do  
Go write your message on the pavement  
Burnin' so bright I wonder what the wave meant  
White heat is screaming in the jungle  
Complete the motion if you stumble  
Go ask the dust for any answers  
Come back strong with 50 belly dancers_

_The world I love  
The tears I drop  
To be part of  
The wave can't stop  
Ever wonder if it's all for you  
The world I love  
The trains I hop  
To be part of  
The wave can't stop  
Come and tell me when it's time to_

My phone started ringing before the second verse and I set my notepad down to check the caller ID: Inuyasha. Well, I'll just step outside to take this.

I stood up and headed for the door, ignoring Bank's confused look as he watched me from behind the drums. I opened the screen door and stepped outside, flipping my phone open in the process.

"Hey," I spoke into the phone. "What's up?"

"Where the hell are you?" Inuyasha asked.

"Um, camp." Honestly, he's the one who dropped me off at the bus lot. "I'm pretty sure we talked about this already."

"No, not that genius." I could hear his eye roll through the phone. "There's, like, music blasting in the background. I didn't think they'd let you throw raves there."

"They don't let you do _anything _here. My counselor was going to throw out my bag of candy if I didn't get Bank to hide it during to inspection." I sat down on the steps of the cabin. "I'm at band practice."

"On the first day?"

"You know Bank," I lied back on the porch and looked up at the sky. The sun was setting. "He has to get a head start on everything. No breaks allowed." I sighed. "Besides, he found our replacement bassist and he has to be ready for the performance on Sunday. The guy is really good though so we just need to get him used to our songs. Sunday is a cover event, so we're picking out which song to do." I looked around for a second. "Don't tell Suikotsu or anything, but he is _way _better than him."

"You shouldn't say stuff like that, Kags," Inuyasha laughed. "It really hurts a guy's ego."

"Yeah?" Like I don't already know how big guys' egos are. "I'll be sure to remember that for future reference." We were silent for a while. "So what's up with you?"

"Same old, same old. After work, Dad let me close up so Miroku, Sesshoumaru, and Kenji came by and we just raced the go-carts. Just your usual summer fun."

"I wish I were there," I mumbled, closing my eyes. "I'm getting my ass kicked out here. There's a lot of actual _work _I have to do, the showers are freezing and one of my counselors is a bitch while the other is so perky it's annoying."

"It'll get better."

"You have to say that; you're my boyfriend."

"I'm doing a good job at it too."

"Mediocre," I laughed into the phone. The music in the background stopped, meaning I would have to go back in there soon. "I'm going to have to get back to practice before Bank revokes my manager status."

"For talking to your boyfriend?"

"This _is _Bank we're talking about. He is very serious when it comes to the band."

"Very true." Inuyasha was quiet for a second. When he spoke up again his voice was a lot quieter. "I'll see you this weekend."

"Alright."

"I love you."

I have just left planet earth and am now floating above the clouds in that little spot of heaven reserved just for me, for all the times I feel like I'm going to burst with happiness every time Inuyasha says those three little words.

The screen door swung open and Bank stepped out. "What are you—"

"I love you too, Inuyasha," I whispered back, ignoring Bank. "I gotta go. Bye." I snapped my phone shut and turned to Bank. "Did you want something?"

"Nope," he was shaking his head and turning back around. "Nothing at all."

Bank always gets so squeamish when it comes to romance. He's not a cynic—I would know if he was— or a wimp, but he can't take it when I or anybody else starts getting all mushy. Maybe it's just that he's uncomfortable when couples are completely lost in each other, which would make a lot of sense. What doesn't make sense is why he can't embrace the fact that he has a big, fat, giant crush on Rei. It wasn't going to kill anyone.

"You know," I said, standing up and wiping the dust off my back, "if you don't get over this… uneasiness with being romantic, you're never going to end up with Rei. A lot of girls like romantic gestures."

"Shut up Kagome," Bank mumbled as he opened the door for me and we stepped inside. Conversation was over for now. Bank would kill me if I discussed his love life in front of everybody. _Especially_ Sho and Jakotsu.

"Welcome back, Kagome," Sango teased when she saw me and I just rolled my eyes. "What song are we doing next?"

"The Shipped Gold Standard by Fall Out Boy." Bank turned to Sho. "Do you know that one?"

"Enough."

"Alright then." Bank took his seat behind the drums again and pointed one of his drumsticks at me. "Don't forget to take notes."

I rolled my eyes. I know the deal already.

"Gotcha'."

-x-

An hour and a half later, Bank decided it was finally okay for practice to be over and everyone was packing up. I was picking up the wires while everybody else was putting away their own instruments.

"Well this has been fun, but I must say, it's time to go," Jakotsu said, snapping his guitar case shut and stood up. "I'm heading back to the cabin. It's naptime."

"Right behind you," Sho declared, pulling the strap of his case over his shoulder. "Time to hit the hay."

"Really? It's only," Bank fished around in his pocket and pulled out his phone," 8:30. My grandparents don't even clock out until nine."

"Dude," Sho looked right at Bank, "it's been a long day."

"Amen to that," Sango agreed, stretching her arms above her head wincing a little bit. "My body hurts like hell. All those damn outdoors activities completely kicked my ass."

"It's only going to be worse in the morning."

"Great."

"So, I'm leaving," Jakotsu picked up his case and headed towards the door. "I'll catch you at the cabin, Bank."

"Hold up!" Sho called as he scrambled after Jak. "I'm not about to get lost in the woods."

"Wait for me!"

The screen door creaked shut behind Sango and only Bank and I remained. I sat on the ground and stretched out as Bank put away the last of his stuff. He walked up to me and sat down beside my stretched out form.

"What did you find out?"

I gasped over dramatically and shot up. "Are you really saying you want to know about Rei?"

Bank's face turned red, he refused to look at me. "That's why I'm letting you play matchmaker."

"Well, she mentioned taking the songwriting class, she really hates all the water sports"—I know, who _hates _water? "Ichiro's one of her best friends, she is kind of shy around some people, and she has mentioned nothing about being in a relationship."

"You didn't just go up to her and ask if she was dating anyone, did you?" He asked a look of fear on her face.

"Of course not," I assured him. I'm not going to get her all suspicious. "She just never mentioned it."

"Then how do you _know?"_

"I don't, it's just—"

"But I need to _know._"

I looked at Bank and he had this urgency in his eyes. "You're really into her."

"No," he said a bit too quickly. "I just met her. It's impossible."

"Alright," I crawled so I was sitting in front of Bank, "Step one to a girl's heart: admit you like her. And the more you like her, the faster the girl starts falling for you." I thought back to Hojo. "As long as you're not a creeper, that is."

"I'm not a creeper," Bank rolled his eyes. Then he froze, looking me in my eyes. "Am I?"

"Your insecurity is adorable," I laughed and he scowled. "No, you're not a creeper. You're a very handsome young man."

"I don't like it when you talk like my mom."

I laughed again before regaining my posture and concentrating on the topic at hand. "Okay, now repeat after me." Bank had an uneasy look on his face. I rolled my eyes, "I'm not going to make you say anything stupid."

"I wasn't thinking you were."

"Mmhmm… Alright," I looked him in the eyes. "I like Rei."

Bank's Adam's apple bobbed up and down. "I like Rei."

I smiled. "Good. That wasn't so hard, now was it?"

"I'm only talking to you."

"Then pretend I'm Rei."

"I can't. No matter how hard I try, you're still going to be my best friend making the situation very unrealistic."

"True." I thought for a second. "Well, I guess we're done for today."

"Wait!" Bank looked at me with pleading eyes. "That's all a class A matchmaker has?"

"Here's a secret," I leaned in and whispered, "The A really stands for amateur."

"Kagome!"

"Fine." He waited for me to continue. "Dress better for tomorrow. And brush your hair."

"_Kagome."_

"What?" I shrugged, standing up. "It's only been one day and in case you haven't realized, Rei is with Ichiro every second she can." Bank frowned and I cursed myself for my wording. It sounds like Rei is in love with Ichiro the way I put it. "Relax Bank. They're _friends._ That's something I'm sure of."

"Whatever," Bank mumbled standing up beside me, stretching his arms over his head. "Want me to walk you back to the cabin?"

"Hoping to catch a glimpse of Rei?"

"No." I raised my brow and Bank rolled his eyes. "I still am your best friend. I can walk you to your cabin without any ulterior motives."

"Aww…" I cooed, throwing my arms around Bank's torso in a hug. "When you say things like that, I'm reminded why you're such a great friend."

"There are moments when you forget?"

I pulled back. "When you're barking at me about the band? Yeah, you can get kind of mean."

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry."

"I know."

"But the band is a really serious thing."

"I know." I led the way to the door and Bank flicked the lights off, locking the door before we shut it behind us.

"So can I see the notes you took on practice?"

I froze. Did I take notes? Yes. Did I take notes about the band? No.

"Uh… don't you think it's kind of dark to be reading? All that strain on your eyes is going to lead to the need of glasses."

Bank stopped walking and tilted his head at me. "You didn't take notes."

"Not _exactly."_

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well," I took a few steps away from him, just in case, "you know how I get easily distracted and well, I kind of started taking notes on the possible covers _I _might perform."

To my surprise, Bank didn't flip out.

"You're going to perform?"

"Maybe," I corrected as we started walking again. "I'd like to shove it in Yuuki's face when I do an incredibly kick ass job."

"Do you know what you're doing?"

"Not really." Hint: the reason why I was writing down possible ideas opposed to doing my job, and taking down notes on what the band should perform. "I haven't even tried any of the songs out."

"If you get up early enough tomorrow, I'll help you decide," Bank offered. "We'll go somewhere and you can just perform them in front of me and I'll help narrow down you list."

I smiled up at Bank. "This is another one of your, I'm-a-great-friend moments," I said and Bank flashed one of his bright smiles my way.

"You see, even though you didn't do your job as a manager, I'm still not freaking out at you." He threw an arm over my shoulders. "I'm not that much of a freak when it comes to the band."

Considering the fact that he just said that with loads of sarcasm, I beg to differ.

"Hey," I pulled out the outdoors activity sheets that I picked up because everybody left them behind. "We never finished going through this."

"Don't we have to turn them in tonight?"

"Yep." We were coming up to my cabin and when we got there I stopped at the steps, sitting down. "You want to finish them up?"

"I don't—"

Bank suddenly stopped talking and I looked up at him to see him staring at something in the distance. I followed his gaze to see Rei and Ichiro by a tree not that far away. Ichiro was hugging Rei and whispering something in her hair. I don't think—I _know _that's not the kind of scene you want to be watching when you have a really big, fat, giant crush on the girl being hugged.

I looked back over to Bank; his head was hanging in defeat.

"Hey," I nudged him in the side and he looked at me. "Remember all those times I came to you, crying my eyes out because Inuyasha had done something stupid again?"

"Yeah…"

"What did you do for me?"

Bank's eyebrows furrowed together. "I comforted you?"

"Exactly and how did you comfort me?"

"I…" Realization finally struck him. "I hugged you and told you everything was going to be fine."

"Right," I confirmed, nodding my head. "And what are we?"

"Best friends."

"And this is a strictly platonic friendship, right?"

"Absolutely."

"Now," I pointed to Rei and Ichiro. "Take everything I just told you and apply it to that situation. What is the outcome you get?"

"They're just friends."

"Alright then, so don't go getting beat up if there's nothing romantic going on between them. Besides," I leaned back on my hands and Bank looked at me in question. "You're a hundred and sixty times more charismatic than that guy, anyways."

"Thanks Kagome."

"No need to thank me for telling the truth," I smiled up at him. "You're _way _better than that guy."

Bank just smiled and we sat there for a minute before I stood up. "I better head in."

"Don't you want to finish going through the sheets?"

"Nah," I shook my head. I handed them over to Bank so he could drop them off on his way to his own cabin. "Just don't mark me down for anything like dodge ball. And absolutely no flag football."

"Why not?"

I looked at him. Like he didn't already know why.

"Last time I played that game I ended up covered in mud and with a detention."

"Ah… But you met me," Bank said, giving me one of his cheesy grins.

I smiled as I headed to the door of Crazy Frogs' cabin.

"But I met you."

_**-0-0-0-0-0-**_


	6. Confession 5: I Eavesdrop

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the songs**

**So, yeah, this is a REALLY long chapter so… it's going to take a while reading it. BUT it's to make up for how long it took me to update. That and I really had a lot to talk about in this chapter so it just dragged on and on and on. But I hope you guys like it. I just finished my exams so I am FREE to do whatever I want w/o worrying about cramming for a test or pop quiz. It's a huge relief. Who has two thumbs and can now update more frequently? THIS GIRL! Don't count on it though. Please enjoy this chapter and REVIEW when you're done! Thank you! BTW, the song under the title is frickin' hilarious to me if you actually read all the lyrics.**

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_And I almost had you__  
__But I guess that doesn't cut it__  
__Almost had you__  
__And I didn't even know it__  
__You kept me guessing and now I'm destined__  
__to spend my time missing you__  
__I almost wish you would've loved me too_

_-Bowling for Soup "Almost"_

**Confession #5: I Eavesdrop on Others' Conversations**

The first thing I saw when I entered the cabin was Sango and Aimi sitting on Sango's bed. Aimi was hyperventilating into a paper bag and her eyes were the size of saucers.

"Oh my god," I gasped as I rushed over to them. "What happened?"

"Realization hit," Sango answered, rubbing Aimi's back for comfort. "It's safe to say that she's not taking it well."

"Obviously." I sat down on the other side of Aimi. "Was it dance practice with Raiden?"

"She didn't even go_,"_ Sango answered for Aimi again, who was way too busy freaking out. "She told him the fish at dinner was bad and that she came down with a bad case of food poisoning. Apparently Kazumi is really good with stage make-up," Sango said, motioning to the only photographer in our cabin with the shoulder length blond hair. "She looked like a zombie."

"So the problem is…"

"The problem is I have to take that class with the evil witch!" Aimi exploded, removing the bag from her mouth. "Why the _fuck _did you guy's let me sign up for the class?"

"I told you not to take it," I offered, shrinking away as Aimi's glare intensified.

"But you didn't rip the pencil out of my hand and slap some sense into me!" Aimi buried her face in her hands. "I'm so screwed. Kiyoko is going to try and kill me."

"Well… look at this way," I spoke up again. "You only have to take the class for a week. And you don't even know for sure if you got into Kiyoko's class."

"Wrong," Sango corrected me. "We got our class assignments already. They stopped by while we were at band practice."

"Really?" I piped up. "What did I get?"

"Oh, be selfish why don't you," Aimi hissed as she glared at me and I shuddered. "Starting tomorrow I'm going to be put through hell and all you can think about are _your _classes? God! Can I get a _little _sympathy?"

"Here," Sango said, rolling her eyes at Aimi's melodramatics as she handed me a card. "It only has our 'artsy' activities, obviously_, _and we're supposed to get our outdoors activities tomorrow at breakfast."

I looked down at my sheet. I had Songwriting right after breakfast and then about two hours after that class ended I'd go to the portrait class I signed up for. Not bad. Now as long as I don't get some extremely strenuous outdoor activity, everything will be perfect.

"What did you get?" I asked Sango as she went back to consoling Aimi.

"I decided I'd take the piano class-so I could end up with Rei and I have Songwriting. We have the same class. I already checked."

"This feels like comparing schedules," I mumbled as I stood up and climbed up the ladder to my higher bunk. "I wonder if Bank landed the same class. I should call him."

"I don't want Raiden to get the same class as me," Aimi mumbled miserably from below. "He'll find out just how absolutely suckish I am at dancing."

"You can always pray really hard that you guys don't get the same class," I suggested, fishing around in my pillow case for my candy bag. I know; _genius. _

"I can't," Aimi mumbled and I peeked over the edge of the bed to see her smothering her face in Sango's shoulder. "I already prayed really hard for us _to _get in the same class. Taking it back seems greedy."

"Oh…"

We were silent.

"Pray to be suddenly graced with amazing dance skills?"

"I don't think I should waste my prayers on the impossible." Aimi got off Sango's bed and hopped up onto her own bunk. Her eyes zeroed in on my bag of candy and for a second I thought Aimi was going to rat me out because she was in a bad mood. But she didn't. Instead, she held her hand out and wiggled her fingers. "Chocolate me," she demanded. "I hear it's supposed to be a good stress reliever."

"It is," I assured her, pulling out a fun sized Snickers bar. I usually don't hand out Snickers because they're my favorite, but Aimi is going to have to deal with Kiyoko for the next seven days, I decided I could make the sacrifice. "Gift from the heavens."

Aimi took the bar and ripped it open, shoving it in her mouth and crunching it in a way that made me grimace.

"So what art class are you taking?" I asked, since I already knew she had unfortunately gotten Kiyoko's hip hop class.

"Abstract," Aimi answered easily. "And next week, I'm taking Abstract and Surrealism. I knew there was a good reason why I didn't branch out of the art section last summer. I knew it."

"Well this sucks," I mumbled, lying back on my bed. "Now I have a class where I won't know anybody unless Hojo pops up in that class." My eyes widened in horror and I looked at Aimi with urgency. "Hojo doesn't portraits, right?"

"He does." Aimi confirmed my fears. "Good luck with that."

"Great."

"Hey guys," Rei greeted us as she entered the cabin. "What's up?"

I was at a crossroad here, because at this moment, I don't like Rei. Given, she did absolutely nothing wrong to insult me or any of my friends, but she is completely messing with Bank's heart. Well, not really, but she's so clingy when it comes to Ichiro, it _looks _like they're together which makes Bank really uncertain and that's just not the way Bank is.

But when I looked at her, I kind of felt guilty for my hate. Her eyes were puffy and rimmed with red. She _was _crying no more than three minutes ago.

"I'm going to be put through hell in—" Aimi cut herself off once she got a good look at her bunkmate. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Oh, uh…" Rei trailed off, trying to find a good excuse as she sat down on her bed. "Allergies, I have really bad seasonal allergies."

"Yeah, and I shoot chocolate chips from my nose," Aimi said, rolling her eyes, hanging her head over her bed to look at Rei. "What's up?"

"Nothing, it's nothing," Rei insisted, shaking her head, tears starting form again and she tried wiping them away. The guilt feeling punched me in the stomach again and I felt sick.

"Hey," Sango switched beds so she was sitting beside Rei and draped an arm around her shoulders. "It's alright. Don't beat yourself up trying to tell us."

Rei was nodding her head, but even then she was starting to confess. "My ex-boyfriend just called, like, no more than ten minutes ago." She bit her lip. "He keeps talking about getting back together."

"Did he break up with you?" I asked, dropping down to Sango's bunk so I sat across from her.

"No."

"So you're crying because…"

"I'm crying because…" She trailed off, wiping at her eyes again before taking a big breath to continue. "Because there's a chance I might take him back, but the…conditions of our relationship were…" she grimaced, "bad. Yeah, just put it that way."

"So you still love him but you know it's bad to," I clarified, not liking all the meanings _bad _had in my mind.

"Exactly."

"But you said no, right?" Sango pressed. "If a relationship is bad for you, you shouldn't go back to it."

"I said no," Rei confirmed, but she was still crying. "But I still…" she trailed off again, shaking her head. "It was a recent break-up. Like, maybe a week and a half before I came to Talent."

"Good lord," Aimi breathed out, still hanging over the edge of the bunk. "You seemed absolutely fine earlier."

"Of course," Rei cracked a smile. "I mean, you guys aren't terrible company and Ichiro knows all about it and helps me through it, and then as long as I keep reminding myself what a bastard that guy—whose name is unmentionable—was, I'm perfectly fine. But when he called…" She shook her head. "I just need some more time to get used to it, that's all."

"We'll all help you," I volunteered and then added, "and Bank will too."

Rei really smiled after I said Bank's name. "That'll be nice."

"Well," Aimi started, pulling herself up so she was sitting upright on her bed again, "we are nice people."

"You want a piece of candy?" I asked, reaching my hand up and grabbing the bag off my bed. I purposely dug out a Snickers bar. Another sacrifice could be made for this. "It's what all the heart doctors are prescribing these days."

"Thanks," Rei smiled, taking the bar from my hand.

"So," Sango spoke up, "what classes did you get?"

Rei fished the tiny card out of her back pocket. "Songwriting is after breakfast then after that is my piano class." She shrugged. "I figured I'd get them both."

"Congratulations!" Sango cheered, engulfing Rei in a tight hug, lifting the once tense atmosphere completely. "You get to spend the entire first half of your day with me!"

"I can't wait," Rei laughed, rolling her eyes. "What did the rest of y'all get?"

Aimi's face immediately fell and I started cracking up.

"Don't remind me," she growled out, flipping over onto her side so her back was to me and she would be staring at the wall. "I hate my life."

"She got Kiyoko's class?"

"Yep."

"Did she get the same class as Raiden?"

"We don't know yet." I dug my phone out of my pocket; ready to dial Bank's number. "But I don't see why we should wait," I said, dialing number 2 on my speed dial.

After three rings Bank finally picked up.

"Have I told you lately how awesome you are?" He asked into the phone, sounding grateful.

"You could mention it more often. Most of the time you're lecturing me about how I do some really stupid stuff." I flopped back on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. "What did I save you from this time?"

"Mom called and she was bugging me again," Bank sulked.

"About…" Sango sucked her teeth, and motioned for me to hurry it up.

"Just… stuff."

"Oh… was it embarrassing stuff?"

"Kagome."

"What was it about? Was she—"

"Kagome!" This time it was Sango who cut me off, demanding me to hurry. "Remember why you called."

I nodded my head, shooing her away with my hand. It's so rude when people try to dictate your phone conversations.

"So what classes do you have?"

"The songwriting class right after breakfast and then my drumming class right after that. I still don't see the point of having to go to a drumming class when I'm already—"

"Yes! We have the same songwriting class," I cut Bank off, not really wanting to be stuck listening to him brag about his amazing skills then have him rant on and on about how you can't be taught to improve your drumming skills once you already know how. The rest is just a 'gut feeling'.

"Great."

"So it'll be you, me, Sango, Rei, Sho, and Jakotsu all in the same class then," I continued on, leading up to the real reason I was calling.

"No. Jak decided he was more suited for the drama field and took some Shakespeare class. He's off bonding with some of the drama geeks in our cabin now."

"Jakotsu has always been a drama queen." I thought it over for a sec. "Theater could definitely be his second calling, especially after he took that playwriting class last year. Did you read some of his—"

"Just ask him the damn question already!" Aimi demanded, looking crazed. "Just ask the question before I hurt you."

"So what classes did Raiden get?" I asked, inching away from Aimi, even though she was relaxing. "Is he sharing any of our classes?"

"No. He got that class with Kiyoko and some other dance class."

"What time is his class with Kiyoko?" I asked, Rei, Sango, and Aimi all looking at me with anticipation.

"Uh…" Bank was off the phone for a second before coming back, "He's got the ten o'clock class."

"The ten o'clock class?" I repeated, looking at Aimi as she fished out her schedule, Aimi and Rei reading over her shoulder.

"That's what I just said."

"Fuck!" Aimi cried out, falling back on her bad and turning to face the wall again. "Fuck, fuck, fuck-fuckity fuck."

That doesn't sound good.

"Such a dirty mouth," Sango mumbled and Rei stifled a laugh.

"Really?" I faked enthusiasm as I kept speaking to Bank. "Well, tell him to be ready to walk Aimi to class!"

"Shut the hell up, Kagome!" Aimi yelled to the wall. "I'd appreciate it if you'd stop rubbing this whole thing in my face."

"Well, I must get going," I told Bank, holding back my laughter. I know, what a bad person I am to be laughing at another's misery. "I'll see you—"

"Wait!" Bank cut me off. "Are we still going to meet tomorrow to go over songs for your cover?"

"Yeah," I agreed, after giving it a second thought. "Just give me the time and place."

"Uh… It has to be before the alarm goes off so how about… eight by the lake?"

"I don't know…eight is pretty early…" I hate getting up early. "How about after dinner? Or during Songwriting since, you know, I'm supposed to be able to slack in that class."

"After dinner."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow," I spoke into the phone before hanging up and turning to Aimi's depressed figure to deal with the situation at hand.

"This doesn't happen to me," she moaned, rocking herself. "This happens in books and movies where the writers just put a girl through the misery of humiliation because they're mean, evil, and sadistic people who like to make the puppets of their show suffer because they need to vent about their own humiliating experiences. God Damnit, this doesn't happen to real life people!" She screamed at the wall again. "Cliché's don't happen in real life."

"Actually they do," Sango pointed out. "Why do you think they're called clichés?"

"Oh, just shut up," Aimi whined. "I want to sulk without being corrected."

"Look at the bright side," I offered, trying to cheer Aimi up. "You still get to walk with him to the class."

"Before he finds out the truth," Aimi mumbled. "I don't want him to think I'm one of those girls who do something they're horrible at just to get a guy's attention."

"But…" Rei trailed off, looking at Sango and I. "You kind of are."

"You guys are no help at all." Aimi said, whipping her head around to scowl at all of us.

"Absolutely useless."

"I told you not to take that class."

"That's it," Aimi hopped off her bed. "I'm going for a walk to get away from all this… whatever the hell this crappy comfort session is!" She marched her way to the door. "I'll be back by curfew!" She slammed the rusty screen behind her.

~0~

"Oh Bank! Wait, wait, wait!" I shouted as I sprinted up the steep hill to the mess hall, seeing Bank about to enter after Sho. Hearing me, he stopped and waited.

"Glad I caught you," I said as I came to a stop beside Bank and he opened the door for me. "I have more dirt on—well info on the whole Rei situation." It can't be 'dirt' if it's really nothing bad. "I think it just might help you out a bit."

"Really?"

"Yeah." We made our way to the back of the mile long breakfast line. "So, it turns out Rei was in a relationship that ended a week before camp started." I looked him in the eyes. "A bad relationship."

"Bad?"

"Yeah, like… well, she didn't elaborate, but remember yesterday when we saw her crying? Yeah, it was because the guy had called her, begging her to take him back, and she was upset because she really loves the guy but she knows the relationship is just going to hurt her. So, yeah, she was having an emotional breakdown when we came across her."

"So… because she's still _in love _with a guy who is bad for her, it's _good _for me?"

Well, when he puts it that way…

"No! I didn't finish." Bank lifted a brow, not believing I was going to deliver anything useful. "When we were all volunteered to help her get through it, I told her you would be there too and she smiled!" Bank looked confused. "Don't you get it!"

"No…"

"She smiled _specifically _at the mention of _your name._" I looked at him expectantly. "Do you get that?"

"Kind of…" He still looked confused. "Could you explain it?"

"It means she likes you!" I shouted. "She smiles at just the mention of your name. What more of a _sign _do you need?"

"She likes me?"

"Yes." Finally, we were on the same page. I saw the door open and in stepped Aimi, Sango and Rei. "Okay, Rei is here, so go interact with her without stuttering, blushing, or mumbling…we clear?"

"Jeez… no pressure."

"That's right Bank, no pressure," I nodded, smiling up at him. "And I must say you look very nice today. You look _much_ better than yesterday."

"Kagome…"

"What?" Really, I did nothing to deserve that 'you're-frustrating-me tone'. "I'm being honest."

"I just—"

"Greetings fellow earthlings," Aimi greeted as she unashamedly cut off a good amount of people to stand by us. "How are you this morning?"

"Fine." Bank mumbled and I gently elbowed him in the ribs. He gave me a look which I responded to by mouthing out '_No mumbling'_ and he grumbled something before turning his back to me. How rude!

"Hey Bank," Rei chirped as she came to stand beside me. Bank turned back around, blushing, but not like a tomato.

"Hey Rei." Good, no stuttering and he so far he seemed relaxed; very good. "What's up?"

"Nothing really," Rei shrugged. "So what classes do you have?"

"Songwriting after breakfast and then some drumming class later on today." Bank moved forward and we were now close enough for each of us to grab a tray. Bank handed Rei a tray. Perfect! And who said chivalry was dead? "What about you."

"Well, we have the same Songwriting class but right after that I have piano class. I really don't see the point though; I've been playing the piano since I was five. Once you get the basics, it's all—"

"—what you feel." Bank finished for her, smiling at the connection they made. "I mean, they can't force you to play a piece because it's meaningless without any true passion behind it."

"Exactly!"

My work here is done.

"Well look at this," Sango said when I stopped eavesdropping on Bank and Rei's conversation. "You're not that bad of a matchmaker after all."

"Glad you finally noticed." I looked back at Bank and Rei as he handed her an apple. "They're bonding!"

"Yes, yes," Aimi waved off, standing on her toes to try to see something. "Where the hell is Raiden?"

"You mean you're not going to try to avoid him?"

"Well, after my walk yesterday, I figured that if I'm going to be stuck in that evil woman's class, I might as well make the best of it." We moved forward a bit and Aimi grabbed a salad bowl, filling it with cantaloupe and honeydew melon. "That means I am going to walk to class with Raiden, be his partner for any partner dancing, and walk from class with him."

"I don't think Kiyoko is going to pair Raiden up with an inexperienced dancer," Sango mumbled and I nodded in agreement, but caught Aimi's death glare and stopped. "But you can always ask him for help," Sango hurried on to say to cushion the blow.

The murderous look left Aimi's face and it was replaced with a pathetic one. "I feel so embarrassed for myself," she whimpered. "I'm such an idiot."

"Aw… don't worry about it," I assured Aimi as I threw my arm over her shoulders and patted her arm. "Maybe if you tell Raiden that you only took the class to be with him he'll be flattered and actually go to one of the movies with you."

"Yeah," Aimi scoffed. "Fat chance."

We went through the line, slowly. Picking up our breakfast, Sango and I continually reminded Aimi that she shouldn't escape her problems by eating a mountain load of food. Yesterday I filled my plate with just about everything, today I was good and only got waffles. Chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream and a lot of syrup. _But, _I did get some fruit so… there's something healthy in there.

"…sit with y'all today?"

I tuned back into Bank and Rei's conversation just in time to hear Rei asking if she could sit with us as if she was a stranger. Bank seemed to freeze and, I swear to god, I was about to slap him. What's wrong with him! He was doing so well and then he just… freezes up! What an idiot.

"I… uh, s-sure." Bank stuttered out, his left eye twitching just a bit.

"If you don't want me to I can always—"

"No!" Bank shouted a bit too fast and a lot too loud. "I mean, it's fine. You can sit with us."

"If you're sure you're okay with it…"

"Me?" Bank pointed to himself and pretended to be shocked, regaining his composure. "I'm fine with it. Why would I not want you to sit with us? You're great!"

_Great cover up Bank! Way to work your charismatic magic!_

"Oh. Well th-thanks, y-you were just…" Now Rei was the one blushing and stuttering. She paused and took a deep breath to compose herself. "I'm just going to go to the table already."

"See you there," Bank replied, flashing his brilliant smile. _Yes! Way to seal the deal! Magnificent! _ "You can bond with Jak while you're there. He loves talking to girls."

Rei smiled at Bank before lifting her tray and headed for the table and Sango and Aimi followed in suit while I went up to congratulate Bank.

"That was great!" I enthused as I gave him a quick hug. "You weren't stuttering or blushing out of control, and you were relaxed and charismatic. Oh, and that cover up for freezing up back there? Brilliant! You told her she was great and then—"

"Kagome?" Bank cut me off, looking kind of pale. That's weird…Bank is always really tan.

"What?"

"I'm going to throw up."

"What? Why? How?" I looked him up and down as if there would be a sign taped to his clothing. "Wait," I took a step back, "do you mean now?"

"I can't go over there and talk to Rei for an entire hour! What… what am I going to _say?_"

I stared at Bank in disbelief? "What do you mean, 'what am I going to say?'! You were just talking to her this entire time and _now _you're going to freak out?"

"We were talking about music; I can't just talk to her about music for the next hour!" Bank looked panicked. "You're the matchmaker, do something!"

"What do you want me to do, make up a list of conversation topics?"

"Perfect."

I just looked at him blankly for a minute. God, he's hopeless.

"Bank." I put my hands on his shoulders. "You are a great guy and you don't need a list of topics to talk to a girl. Remember when we met in detention and you just jumped into a conversation? You are a naturally gifted speaker; you don't need a list of topics."

"But I _want _a list of topics."

"Get it together, man!" I shouted, shaking him a bit. "You can't wimp out now! You are going to go over there and speak to Rei like a normal person and sweep her off her feet. Got it?"

"I—"

"Good."

"Kagome…"

"Just remember: Eye of the tiger." I pointed to my eyes and then made tiger claws at the correct time. "Eye of the tiger."

"Eye of the tiger," Bank nodded, finally getting his act together. "Eye of the tiger."

"Alright, now go talk to Rei without making a fool of yourself." I ordered, patting Bank's shoulder for support. Bank nodded and headed to the table, taking a seat across from Rei and starting a conversation. _Please don't screw up…_

"I thought you said your boyfriend wasn't here?"

"Shit!" I screamed whirling around to see who decided to whisper in my ear and nearly give me a heart attack. "Oh. It's just you, Hojo." Great.

"Surprise!" He joked, but I wasn't laughing. "So, I thought you said your boyfriend wasn't coming to camp, but he was just there."

"Bank is just my friend," I deadpanned, trying to get out of this conversation as quickly as possible. "But he's really good friends with my boyfriend."

"Ah… I see."

"Well, I better—"

"So rumor has it we're in the same portrait class," Hojo cut me off, stepping closer though he was already _way _too close.

"Really…?" I tried to back up a bit, but he only stepped forward some more. Damn. "And where'd you hear that?" If Aimi or Sango dropped him any hints I was going to murder them.

"Oh, I stopped by the cabin this morning to speak to the teacher and I got a look at the different classes." He smiled. "We're together."

Well, that's not creepy at all.

"Oh, that's, that's just…great." Great equaling the equivalent of how you feel after you've fallen off a mountain in a hiking accident.

"That's exactly how I felt!" Hojo smiled, thinking we made a connection. "So we get to spend the summer in the same class. Well, if you don't switch out that is."

First thing to do at the end of this week: take a different style of art.

"Well… I'll see you in class." I forced myself to smile and Hojo smiled back, extremely bright. "Bye Hojo," I mumbled, shuffling around him and hurrying over to the table where everyone was already seated.

"It's already starting," Aimi whispered to me as I took the only seat that was open, between her and Bank. He seemed to be holding his own just fine.

"Excuse me?"

"The stalker thing…" I raised my brows. "_Hojo."_

"Oh, wait, you saw that?"

"Yep," Aimi nodded. "But now it's only going to get worse. Next thing you know he'll be in the same shower stall as you."

Oh that's just nasty. "That's a really bad mental image."

"That's life."

"Great." Again great is the equivalent to falling off a mountain.

"…try to make your elbows touch," Bank was telling Rei as I tuned into their conversation, wanting to make sure he wasn't failing miserably. He was actually doing pretty well. Rei tried to connect her elbows in front of her chest and failed. "See," Bank laughed, "You can't do it! That means you're liable to work at Hooters!"

A hush fell over our table as we all just processed what just came out of Bank's mouth. I gave a wide eyed look to both Aimi and Sango to see if they heard it too and they both looked as shocked as I did. Well, Sango looked shocked and Aimi was trying not to burst out laughing. I looked over at Rei and she looked embarrassed and confused. And a little bit of angry.

I should have given him a list.

"Yeah… I'm going to get some more orange juice," Bank mumbled as he stood up from his seat and left. The conversation slowly picked up again.

"Excuse me," I said, already getting out of my seat and chasing after Bank. When I saw him, he was leaning against the drink machine.

"What happened out there?" I hissed once I was in hearing range. "You were doing so well. You almost had her!"

"We were running out of music related things to talk about and then I remembered this joke Miroku was telling me once and—"

"Miroku!" I was honestly shocked. Of all the people he could have borrowed a joke from he chose _Miroku. _"Do you have any idea how many times he gets slapped in one day? Did you forget the fact that, even though he as a girlfriend, he is still labeled as the _school pervert_?"

"I know, but I panicked and—"

"And you chose to use a joke you got from the _school pervert." _I shook my head. "Now Rei is going to think you were just staring at her chest the entire time and girls _don't _like that."

"I know, I just…" Bank ran a hand through his hair. "I clam up sometimes when I get around Rei. I don't want to say anything too stupid and I don't want to be the kind of guy who takes everything seriously, but in the middle of not trying to be both I just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind and… sometimes it's not the right thing."

"Obviously."

"Kagome."

"I'm sorry," I apologized, offering him a small smile. "On the bright side, the damage wasn't too bad _and _we still have five weeks and four days until we go back home. That's plenty of time to win Rei's heart."

"Hating camp that much, huh?"

"It has it downsides. _But_," I looked into Bank's eyes, making sure he was paying attention, "the real question here is what you're going to do about Rei?"

Bank shrugged. "Avoid her until I get over the humiliation."

"You can't do that!"

"Just watch me."

~0~

And so he did.

When he sat back down he talked solely to Raiden, Sho, and Jakotsu, which, by the look on her face, really pissed Rei off. He didn't even comment on how they both got beach volleyball for their outdoor activity (I landed myself in swimming with Sho, Sango, and Aimi). And then when we all went to the Songwriting class (minus Raiden and Aimi, who were almost crying from the dread. And Jakotsu who really hit it off with some of the drama kids), Bank didn't even _look _at Rei, which _really _pissed her off and she went to go sit with Ichiro who also had that class. You can only imagine how much I wanted to hit Bank for practically _giving _Rei to the competition.

I don't have to get frustrated over Bank's millions of issues now because I am entering the Portraits cabin where Bank isn't there to_ frustrate_ me with his inability to show his emotions when it really matters. No, now I have to worry about a creepy stalker guy who, according to Aimi, has claimed me as his 'prey'. Oh the joy.

I recognized the back of Hojo's head the second I opened the door and ducked behind a nearby table to make sure he wouldn't see me when he turned around. The last thing I wanted to do was end up being his partner for the rest of the week. Spending the entire time staring at Hojo and forming a picture, well aware of the fact that he's _creeping _on me? No. That's just not going to work.

Most of the seats were filled with the exception of a few empty pairs of easels, but I don't want to sit by myself because if no one takes the seat across from me I'll feel embarrassed for being left out. There's an empty seat across from a girl with long black hair braided into pigtails and I decided that she'll be my partner for the week.

"Hey," I introduced myself as I stepped up to her easel. She looked up at me and offered a brief smile. "So, I see the seat across from you is empty and camp is all about meeting new people, so…" I trailed off hoping she'd get the point but she just looked at me blankly. "Is this seat taken?"

"Actually, it is." She forced a smiled. "My friend is supposed to be getting here soon and I promised to save her a seat."

I pursed my lips and glared slightly at her, agitated. If she knew the whole time that she was saving the seat, what was the point of making me recite that lame speech?

"How noble of you," I spat, rolling my eyes as I marched away. She saves a seat for her friend so I can be stuck with the creepy guy. _Great!_

As if on cue, Hojo spotted me and I forgot to hide behind a person, an easel, a chair… anything really. "Kagome!" He waved his hands above his head as if I didn't already see him. "Over here! I saved you a seat!" Of course he did.

Not wanting to look like a complete bitch, I trudged over to the pair of easels at the far end of the cabin by the dusty window. I took the seat across from Hojo and forced myself not to grimace at the sickening smile he was giving me. It wasn't even sickeningly sweet or anything, just… _sickening._

"I'm glad we're partners," Hojo smiled and I just nodded, pretending to be very interested in the pieces of charcoal that rested in my easel. "You're not that bad to look at." He gave me what he thought was an alluring smile but it was just creepy. Everything about Hojo was just _creepy. _

"I have a boyfriend," I mumbled, making sure he understood that. "I have a boyfriend that I'm in love with."

"People fall in and out of love all the time," Hojo shrugged. It was as if the fact that I have a _boyfriend _was the equivalent of me just having a cat. He _didn't care. _"That's how heartbreak came about. The real question is whether you're the heartbreaker or the heartbreakee." He looked me in the eyes. "Which are you Kagome?"

That's it; I can't be partners with him. I stood up to go to one of the empty pairs of easels I saw earlier, deciding that being a lonely outsider was better than being with this guy. But as my luck would have it the door flung open before I could make my escape and the sight of my Portrait instructor scared the crap out of me so…I froze.

It was Ms. Saki.

Actually, it was Ms. Saki with a bad haircut and dye job, not wearing a business suit, and a little more on the heavy side, but, besides all that, the lady standing in the threshold was my worst nightmare: Ms. Saki's twin. But maybe if I'm lucky she's the nice twin and Ms. Saki is the evil twin and this lady is really actually nice and congratulates your good work with candy.

"Sit!" She barked and it took me a while to realize that she was actually glaring at me because I was still standing up. I quickly plopped my butt back down on the stool…in front of Hojo.

There goes the nice twin theory.

I feel like my stomach has just been carved out because I _know _I'm sick to my stomach with how awful my luck has been playing out today. Still, I don't feel the gut clenching feeling that should be there. Hojo giving me creepy looks _and _Ms. Saki's twin sending me evil looks? At the same time? I should be about ready to throw up with that realization, but my stomach has disappeared so I _can't _throw up. That's just even more bad luck. Throwing up was my one way ticket out of this hell hole.

"My name is Ms. Fujimoto and I'll be your Portrait instructor for the summer unless you decide to chicken out and drop this class." Put me in that batch of kids why don't you. "If you haven't already noticed, we will be partnering up and you'll be working a lot with your partners, perfecting your ability to draw them." _Great_.

Ms. Fujimoto strolled to the front of the room and sat on a stool that was conveniently positioned there. "I don't want to just focus on the physical appearance in this class. Not just the slope of the nose or the mole above the left eyebrow; I want you each to _really _be able to capture the essence of your partner and be able to display that in your drawing. In the eyes, posture, setting. I want to seethe _person_ and not just a face." She looked around. "Do you get what I'm saying?"

I take it back. I like the stuff this lady is saying. She's kind of strict, but I can understand that; don't want the campers to walk all over her…very understandable. Ms. Saki was a straight up bitch though.

When she was met with silence, Ms. Fujimoto clapped her hands together and hopped off her stool. "Alright then! To get started I want you and your partner to play 'Three Questions' and, based off those questions, try to draw your partner with some sort of… essence. Now, does everyone have a partner? Good. Let's get started!"

"Okay." I turned to Hojo, not having an option but to actually converse with him. "Question one: What is your favorite color?" That was a bad question. How do I capture his essence knowing his favorite color?

"Green," Hojo answered easily. "Your favorite movie?"

"Lion King." I didn't even think about how embarrassing that fact is before just blurting it out.

"Child like…" Hojo mumbled mostly to himself as he jotted something down in the corner of his sheet. He looked up at me expectantly. "Your turn."

"Oh yeah, right." Hojo is a lot easier to stand when he's not acting creepy, which apparently is when he's working on artwork. "Favorite movie Genre?"

"Horror."

"Because you're horrific," I mumbled under my breath, jotting the answer down in the far right corner of my paper.

"What?"

"Hope this picture doesn't turn out horrific," I covered easily with a smile to make it more believable.

"Your picture will turn out perfect," Hojo waved off. "Just like you." And the creeper returns.

"It's your turn to ask the question."

"Alright… favorite sport?"

"Swimming." That was way too easy. "Your favorite holiday?"

"Valentines."

Well, I've got a pretty good hold on his essence. He is the creepy flirt who pretends to be an innocent boy. I can see the picture now. Hojo with wide innocent eyes but a miniscule smirk, offering a rose with an outstretched hand. Perfect.

"Favorite kind of candy?"

"Gummy worms," I answered immediately. "Sour."

"Alrighty then, I… got it," Hojo said as he finished jotting down some notes in the corner of his sheet. "Shall we get started?"

"We shall," I mumbled, already concentrating on the outline of Hojo's face.

An hour and forty-five minutes later I was just getting to work on the lower half of Hojo's body—which was hard considering he wasn't modeling the squatted position I was drawing and I wasn't about to _ask _him to model for me—when Ms. Fujimoto clapped her hands together, demanding our attention.

"Class is almost over and I've looked around noticing some of you aren't done, so you won't have to turn these in by the end of class today. I'll give you the first thirty minutes of class tomorrow to finish, but if you don't think you can finish in that time limit, I highly suggest that you and your partner meet up later today and work that out."

A loud buzzing sounded through the air, signaling that this class was over, the beginning of lunch _and_ the beginning of more Bank drama.

I shot out of my seat, ripping the page I was working on off the pad and hurried to place it on the counter in the back of the room as directed. If I hurried I might be able to catch up to Rei and convince her to have lunch with us and not go to the dark side and sit with Ichiro. Just because Bank was being a total asshead this morning doesn't mean he'll stay that way.

I was about to make a mad dash out of the cabin when a hand wrapped around my arm, stopping my escape. I turned around to face…Hojo.

"Hey," he smiled sheepishly. "I didn't exactly get far enough on my picture so I was hoping we could meet up later and…" I huffed out a breath of air. I was afraid of this. "Can you do later on tonight?"

"Sorry, but I have plans with my friend. He's supposed to be helping me on a song." Thank god for Bank!

"Oh. Can you do this afternoon then?"

"Um… I actually have band practiced," I shrugged apologetically. It's not a complete lie; the band would probably be together this afternoon and we'll probably _end up_ talking about band stuff, so… yeah. It's a legit excuse.

"Well we need to get together sometime. I—"

"Give me your phone number," I demanded, fishing my phone out of my pocket and flipping to my contacts, ready to add a new one. I named it 'Creeper'.

"I—uh…" Hojo looked confused but he recited his number. "988-6541"

"Alright." I punched the numbers then saved the contact. "I'll send you a picture of myself later so you can get the basic features and everything down; we good?"

"I—"

"Great." I turned my back to him and began heading towards the door. "See you tomorrow!"

I then hauled my ass out of the cabin, having a sick feeling that Hojo was staring at my backside as I ran away.

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

**Alright, so I'm not going to write anymore b/c I've already reached 7,000 words and I don't want to make this EXTEREMLY long. Yeah, I had to add in the drama with Rei b/c for what I envisioned for the end, Rei having this boyfriend is essential. Well, I hope I didn't drive you all crazy with the length of the chapter, but please, please, **_**please **_**REVIEW! I frickin' love reviews so… send lots!**

**I've started a new story, **Walking Tightropes, **and if you want to you can read and review that. It'll make me smile!**

**Oh, and let's everybody thank hanmajoerin for editing these chapters for me. Yay! **

**xKimiko888x**


	7. Confession 6: I Bite Back

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, any songs, or the line "We bring the fucking **_**rain **_**down on our enemies"—it belongs to John Green the author of Paper Towns- a must read.**

**Okay, so yes it's been a nice long time since I've updated. I get it, you're mad, but I finally got around to it so let's celebrate that! If it weren't for me finishing my stupid science paper earlier today I wouldn't be typing this right now, but I got it done! The typing at least. I've been really busy with school so typing is hard to get around to, but writing stuff down on paper proves to be a great distraction when I'm bored in class. Don't hate me and please enjoy!**

**And I would like to thank hanmajo for not only being a kick ass editor but for also introducing me to the song for the opening of this chapter, "Never Have I Ever", which from now on will be known as Bank and Rei's song.**

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_Never have I ever felt like this before__  
__I've never been the one to knock but now I'm at your door__  
__Well listen very closely you can hear the sound__  
__Of a love that makes my heart beat and my head spin round_

_-Hot Chelle Rae "Never Have I Ever"__  
_

**Confession #6: I Bite Back**

"You see that?" I asked Bank pointing to the laughing Rei and Ichiro sitting next to each other across the mess hall. "That right there is _all _your fault. You just kept pushing her away and being an ass because you can't get over a little embarrassment. Look at what you did! You drove her _right into _the arms of your competition, the _enemy. _You're so stupid!"

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Bank mumbled stabbing his meatloaf. "I do have eyes."

"But you seem to be missing your brain because only a _complete _and _utter _idiot hits a girl with a volleyball!"

"That was an accident!" Bank shouted back at me. Looking with a plea of understanding he continued. "The ball was one of those beach balls that don't work like a normal volleyball and it spun out of control and _accidently _hit Rei in the head. Besides," Bank mumbled, "it's not like it actually hurt her."

"It's the fact that you forgot to apologize that makes it bad," I sighed, rubbing my temples. Being a matchmaker for a dumb idiot is not a very easy job.

"I'm too embarrassed to even face her. Hooters," Bank mumbled to himself, shaking his head. "Why _that _of all things?"

"What you need to do now is work on apologizing," Sango said, joining in the conversation as she popped another piece of her roll into her mouth.

"Flowers," Raiden said, looking away from the thumb wrestle match he was in the middle of with Sho. "Girls like flowers."

"Where am I going to get flowers?" Bank asked. "And no, that's just so… cheesy."

"You're at camp in the forest," I deadpanned. "I'm sure you can find some flowers lying around somewhere."

"They could be poisonous. It's too embarrassing to go up to her with a bunch of flowers and ask for forgiveness. And it's too forward."

"If you're not willing to make a fool of yourself for the girl then you don't like her." Jak pointed out. Sango and I nodded in agreement. "And we're only here for six weeks; you can't take a relationship like this slow."

"What relationship?" Bank asked, getting defensive. "I' m just trying to apologize, I don't—"

"Give it up," Sho cut off Bank, dodging Raiden's thumb. "We all know you like Rei. Your constant denials are all in vain." Everyone nodded in agreement. "You can stop faking indifference now."

"I just need to apologize to her, that's all," Bank insisted stubbornly and we all rolled our eyes.

"You being in denial is going to cost you big time in the future."

"I'm not—" Bank suddenly stopped talking and when I looked over at him he was staring at something. I followed his gaze to see Ichiro with his arm tossed over Rei's shoulder; she didn't seem to mind it at all.

"Bank…"

"So, uh…" Bank coughed. "Flowers, huh?"

I smiled and threw my hands in the air. "We are experiencing a breakthrough!"

"Yeah…" Bank scratched the back of his head. He looked annoyed, but that's nothing new when it comes to stuff like this. "You didn't have to announce it to the whole world though."

"Psh, it's too loud in here for the table next to us to hear me," I waved off. "And I know just when you should give it to her." Bank looked at me uneasily and I smiled. "You can come by to pick me up so we can walk to the lake and give it to her then."

"Not going to happen," Bank rejected, shaking his head. "I'm not going to apologize in front of you, Sango, and Aimi just so you all can get your creepy satisfaction of me being bashful and shit. No."

"You're such a sore sport," Aimi declared. "If girls see a sensitive side to you they might find you adorable though so you'll always have a back-up if Rei, you know, rejects you flat on your ass."

"Gee, Aimi, thanks for the positive input," Bank said, rolling his eyes. "Too bad for those other girls I'm only interested in Rei and if I fail this summer, that's it. No other girl."

"That," I paused for dramatic effect, "Is _so _romantic!"

"Oh, shut up Kagome."

"Don't worry Bank," I assured him. "You'll get over this resistance to romance soon enough. I don't want you to end up being that guy who just screws groupies for the rest of his life and never finds true love or gets married."

"I'm seventeen Kagome. Please don't start badgering me about marriage."

"Okay, I'll come back in ten years."

"Thank—"

"Hey there, Lion King."

Conversation at our table stopped and we all looked up to see who had called me. Yuuki was hovering over our table, just smirking. She had that I'm-a-bitch look to her and I wanted to slap myself for even considering we could have a connection because of the competition last year. The girl basically had 'Bitch' stamped on her forehead. Talent's own Kikyo. Yay.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was actually just trying to find out who is performing on Sunday and, as a senior camper, I'm kind of obliged to give people advice on the matter." She gave me a condescending smile. "I saw you going into a cabin a couple of times for practice. Are you and your band performing?"

"Actually—"

"Actually, it's _my _band," Bank interrupted. "And yes, we are going to perform."

"Well, I _did _name it."

"Kagome." Bank gave me a look and I kept quiet. "Do you have a problem with that?" He asked, turning back to Yuuki, who looked a bit taken back by Bank, but she gave another cool smile.

"I don't have a problem, but since you're new it might be best if you sit the first night out to get a look at the competition because we have some _great _bands."

"We're better," Bank countered, not missing a beat. "And we really don't take advice from old news since people are bound to get tired of you after so many years." Sango smiled from across the table and Aimi looked like she wanted to hug him.

"Well, this 'old news'," Yuuki snapped back, her eyes narrowing, "knows what these campers like and just doesn't want a new band to get booed off the stage because she's a nice person like that."

"Ha!" Aimi laughed, getting a death glare from Yuuki. "Who the hell told you _that _lie?"

Yuuki pursed her lips and looked over all of us with narrowed eyes before standing up straight and flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Whatever. I just wanted to tell Lion King here," she patted my head as if I was a dog and I glared at her (definitely a Kikyo). "That she should really get a hold on her emotions if she actually has the audacity to get on _my _stage with her undeveloped voice. You cry on stage here and you'll be the laughing stock of the summer and I don't think you're the kind of girl who can handle that kind of humiliation." Yuuki shrugged her shoulders "You look kind of… fragile."

Bank's hand formed a fist, but I opened my mouth before he could say anything. He is so protective at times that he forgets to let me fight my own battles.

"Lucky for me, you are absolutely wrong. If you're afraid some new talent is going to kick your ass take it like a man and don't try talking people out of performing."

"I'm _not—"_

"You just seemed really adamant about keeping us from performing and I tend to jump to conclusions," I said with a shrug as if I meant nothing by the comment. "But the next time you want to be a bitch, just be a bitch and leave out all the crappy advice because it's stupid." I looked her in the eyes with the calmest, Sesshoumaru-like look I could muster. "I would never take advice from you anyway, so stop wasting your breath."

I was hoping for Yuuki's mouth to fall open in shock that I had the balls to question her false authority like they do in movies, but the only thing she did was shoot me a look that could kill. The blood in my veins ran cold. This is a totally different level of Kikyo. Kikyo Version 2.0.

"I'll see you around," she spat, turning on her heel and strutting away from our table with her head held high as if I did nothing but boost her enormous ego. Great.

"Well, you sure pissed her off," Raiden laughed. "You're my new hero."

"This isn't Kagome's first time dealing with people like Yuuki," Bank stated proudly. "She got into a mud fight with the bitch at our school last year. That's how we met; detention."

The guys broke into a bunch of hoots and I turned to Aimi who was shoveling more food in her mouth. Apparently male demons aren't the only ones who can get ravenous by dinnertime.

"What's her problem?"

"Whose?" Aimi asked as she looked up from her plate. "Yuuki's"

"Yeah. It's only the second time I've talked to her and I already want to punch her in the face. She doesn't even know my name!"

"Ouch."

"That's the kind of vibe Yuuki tends to give off," Aimi said, stuffing another forkful of food in her mouth. "Her dad owns, like, _Japan, _and makes a bunch of donations to the camp so she sees it as her right to run the place." Aimi swallowed and reached for her drink. "And she is _such _a bitch. The worst part is that she's actually talented, _really _talented. So she's got the money, looks, talent and doesn't hesitate to shove it in everyone's face."

"Wait, wait, wait," I said, holding up my hand. "This girl is _loaded _with cash and she still went to a contest for a free ride to this camp?"

"Uh, yeah." Aimi had another forkful of food waiting to enter her mouth. "She probably just wanted to show off again."

"Yeah, well, she snatched away my chance for a free ride." Given, it wasn't guaranteed that I was the runner-up, but why take someone else's chance away if you have more than enough money to spare? If it weren't for the fact that I can draw and the camp paid for half of my summer, I wouldn't be here.

"That's Yuuki for you." Aimi looked up and glared in the direction of Ichiro and Rei's table. I looked over to see Yuuki now draped over Ichiro, yucking it up. "And she's really into Ichiro, no surprise. The only smart thing about Ichiro is that he doesn't hook up with her." Aimi's eyes narrowed even more as Ichiro cupped Yuuki's cheek in his palm, giving it a light pat. "He's just a real flirt."

I know why he doesn't hook up with Yuuki, too. He's waiting for Rei which makes him Bank's enemy so he's now my enemy too.

"And no one has even bothered to mess with her?" Sango asked, raising a brow at Aimi.

"Oh, how I would love to knock her off that stupid pedestal," Aimi started, defending herself, "but I was already on kitchen duty last year for sneaking out after curfew and I didn't want to get into any more trouble that could result in something like the isolation cabin."

"Isolation cabin?"

"Kitchen duty is horrible, but the isolation cabin is hell." Aimi looked at both of us seriously. "Avoid it at all cost."

"Gotcha."

"Anyway, it's not like I can beat Yuuki on her own stage. I can't sing and, apparently, I suck at dancing."

"Oh right!" I said as the light bulb went off in my head, snapping my fingers. I glanced in Raiden's direction to make sure he wasn't listening. "How'd that go?"

"Kiyoko tried killing me for one, but," she stole a glance in Raiden's direction, "he thinks it's really cool that I'm trying to expand my horizons and offered to help me."

"See?" Sango said with a grin. "It all worked out after all."

"So are you going to keep with dancing?"

"Hell no!" Aimi shouted, looking at me as if I sprouted a second head. "I am getting out of there as soon as sign-up sheets come back around on Friday. I've had enough new experiences."

"Well, at least you—"

"Hey Kagome!"

Somehow I knew he was there even before he opened his mouth. My stalker senses were tingling.

Conversation at our table fell again and we all looked to the head of the table to see Hojo standing there. Aimi and Sango just shook their heads and went back to their plates while the guy continued looking on in mild interest.

I forced myself to smile. "Hey Hojo, what's up?"

"Just admiring your beauty as usual," Hojo said with the same ridiculous smile and Bank's eyebrows shot up. "So, uh, you kind of ran out of class early and you never sent me the picture you promised, so—"

"Yeah, yeah," I cut him off. "I'll send that to you as soon as I get back to the cabin."

"Well, actually, since you're not busy now, we could—"

"Nope," I rejected with a shake of my head. Giving Hojo the permission to stare at me while he drew me when the sun was beginning to set was as dumb as agreeing to get in a car with a stranger. "I'm very busy right now, actually. _Very busy. _I have to…" I looked around for a scapegoat and saw Bank still giving Hojo a stare down. "Bankoutsu here actually has to help me with a song," I said, hopping out of my seat and grabbing Bank's arm, pulling him up.

"It looks like his plate is still full," Hojo said pointing to Bank's tray which was still well stocked. He was too busy staring down Ichiro and Rei to remember to eat his dinner. "Don't tear the man away from his food."

"Thanks for the concern," Bank said with a smile that quickly fell as he flipped on his intimidating side. Bank is a very easy going guy except for when people threaten three things: his family, his friends, and the band. "But I'll give you the go ahead the next time I want you to answer for me." Bank stood up and grabbed my wrist. "Let's go, Kagome."

"W-wait!" Hojo called after us. "What about the picture?"

"I'll send it to you!" I yelled back as Bank dragged me out the mess hall. "Promise!"

"Is that the reason you wanted me to take an art class with you?" Bank asked, peeking through the screen to see if Hojo was still hanging around our table. "Damn, I was hungry."

"You're smarter than you look." Bank rolled his eyes and started down the three steps that led up to the mess hall. "He's creeping me out with how forward he is. The guy doesn't understand boundaries," I continued as I followed Bank down the steps. "I even told him about Inuyasha and he didn't care!"

"Oh, he's going to care when Inuyasha gets all territorial and rips his face off." Bank looked back over his shoulder to catch my eye. "You know how Inuyasha can get, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

Last year Inuyasha stopped by swim practice since football season was over and he had finished lifting weights in the weight room. He was there about five minutes before we were allowed to hit the showers. We had just finished our cool down and were getting in a massage line like we always did at the end of practice. We lined up boy-girl to massage each other's shoulders and Aki just happened to be the unfortunate male that Inuyasha pushed into the pool to take his spot. He got banished for that little stunt. Of course, Aki _was _flirting with me, but Inuyasha has always been territorial in the worst ways. I hate it, but it's a dog thing and it comes along with dating a half dog-demon.

"So are we really going to work on your song now and not at eight?" Bank asked as he headed towards the path that led to the Crazy Frog's cabin.

"No," I said, grabbing the back of Bank's shirt and pulling him back. "_I'm _going to take a real shower." They don't give you much time to shower off after swimming for two hours in the lake, but I discovered that the water in the showers by the lake is _hot. _"You, my friend, are going to pick some flowers."

"Wh-what!"

"I'll see you later!" I called back to Bank as I started jogging down the path. I looked over my shoulder at him and he looked a bit green. "Make sure they're pretty!"

~0~

"You know, I thought we were finally getting somewhere after our conversation and then he just shuts down!"

"Mmhmm…"

"I mean, did I do something wrong? Did I indirectly do something to turn him into such a jerk?"

"Nope."

"Then why is he being such an ass!"

I finally yanked my guitar out from under my bunk and looked up at Rei whose face was flushed red. Since the day I met her, I always thought Rei was a calm, laid back, and poetic kind of person. Even with the purple streaks, she just gave off a chill kind of vibe. But here I was, being proven wrong, as Rei paced back and forth in front of her bed, looking like she wanted to punch something. Bank seemed to have the ability to really piss Rei off and, according to the number of books I've read and chick flicks I've watched, that's a good sign. But, for safety purposes, maybe Bank should hold off on the flowers…

"Bank is still just embarrassed about what he said at breakfast."

Rei stopped pacing and furrowed her brows together. "What did he say?"

"I knew it!" I hopped off the ground and sat on Sango's bed, pushing her feet to the side and she glared at me over the top of the book she was reading. "I _told _him you forgot all about it, but he's all paranoid that you remember the stupid Hooters joke and he couldn't handle you thinking that he was staring at your chest the entire time you guys were talking."

"That's stupid," Rei said, though her face turned a light shade of red.

"He can't take certain types of embarrassment," I explained. "He's really a sensitive guy when it comes to…" I was going to say 'girls he liked', but Bank would chew me up for that one. "Stuff," I finally decided on. "He's just bad with some things."

"So he gives me the cold shoulder all day because of one bad joke?" I nodded and Rei huffed, her previous embarrassment completely disappearing. "He's _too _sensitive."

"You shouldn't be surprised," Aimi said, hanging over the edge of her bed as usual. "Sensitivity is pretty common in the musician types."

"But, then again, Bank has never really been a mysterious, brooding sensitive type. He's more of an easy going guy who gets annoyed by Kagome's antics," Sango put in, letting her book rest on her stomach.

"I got that vibe too," Aimi agreed after giving it a second thought. "Maybe it's just you he's uncomfortable with," Aimi told Rei.

I caught the way the corner of Rei's lips turned down and I glared at Aimi and Sango for doing a horrible job at aiding the Bank-Rei development.

"Don't worry about it," I told Rei. "He's just really piles it on himself when he screws up."

"Yeah, imagine being in his band when he screws up for a millisecond on stage. The crowd doesn't even notice and he _still_ holds practice every day for the next week… it's _exhausting._"

"Yeah…" Rei looked down at her hands in thought for a while before looking back up to me. "So where are you going?"

"To the lake," I reached down for my guitar case and pulled it into my lap. "Bank and I are going to work on possible songs I could perform."

"So you're really going to perform despite what Yuuki said?"

"Maybe not _this _Sunday, but I will perform." You just can't hold me down.

"Yuuki?" Rei asked, her brows furrowing. "The girl with the curly hair and green eyes?"

"Yep." I nodded. "That's her. She stopped by our table at dinner to try to psych us out or something. She doesn't think that the band or I are good enough to get on 'her' stage."

"As if we'd buy that absolute bull," Sango added.

"Right! Like we'd just sit there and take being patronized by her scrawny ass. We bite back! We bring the fucking rain down on our enemies!"

"Okay Kagome," Aimi said, smiling down at me. "We're not trying to gather participants for a riot."

"She had you that heated after one conversation?" Rei asked her brows high on her head. "I guess I missed quite a bit tonight."

"Yeah," Sango said nodding. "Hojo played the creeper role perfectly again and—"

"Hojo!" I hopped off the bed, just remembering my promise. "I better send that stupid picture of me now."

"Yeah, before you see him staring at your through one of the windows."

Aimi said it as a joke, but I checked all the windows just in case. All clear.

"Here Sango," I tossed my phone over to Sango and she dropped her book in order to catch it. "Just take the picture."

Sango held my phone up. "You sure you don't want to smile?"

"Absolutely not," I said, keeping the neutral look as I stared into the little circle on the upper right side of my phone. "I do not want him to think I'm enjoying getting this picture taken."

"Okay, but, can you loosen up the muscles in your face?" Sango asked, lowering the phone. "You look kind of evil."

"Would you just take the picture?"

"Are you okay with looking like a she-devil?"

"Take the stupid picture already!"

My phone said, '_say cheese' _and was followed by an audible click a second after I had time to look neutral again. I reached over and took the phone from Sango's hand and looked down at the digital image of me. I did look kind of evil, but maybe that would strike fear into Hojo's heart. Or at least give him the idea that I was psychotic and not worth the strain on his mental health.

"Do you want me to take another one?"

"No, this is fine," I said, already hitting the send button and scrolling for 'Creeper' under my contacts list. When I found him I hit send and sent him the picture. "One thing I can now check off my To Do list."

"I'm getting one of these intense feelings that you're going to regret giving him that picture," Aimi said and I just rolled my eyes. She was just trying to scare me.

"Didn't your intense feelings cause you to sign up for Hip-Hop Dance with Kiyoko?"

"That was a low blow, Kagome."

There was a knock on our cabin door and we all looked over to the door to see Bank's face being illuminated by the porch light that had automatically turned on not too long ago, even thought it was only dusk. Talent is also wasteful. I must add that to my dislikes list.

"Well, time for me to go." I picked up my guitar and shoved my phone into my pocket. "I'll see you guys later."

"Bye!"

I headed to the door and opened it, smiling down at the flowers Bank was holding in his hand.

"What? You're not going to hide them behind your back for a—"

Bank just pushed past me, not even looking my way, and walked right into the cabin, ignoring the shrieks from the girls who were handing around in shorts and their bras because it was hot as Hell's flames in our cabin.

"What the hell!" One girl shouted. "Get the fuck—"

"Rei," Bank said as he came to a stop in front of Rei who was gaping at him. Aimi was looking at the scene upside down and Sango was peeking over the top of her book. The whole cabin gasped when Bank held the flowers out in front of him, offering them to Rei. "I'm sorry."

God. I miss seeing Bank's face this red.

"Bankoutsu…" Rei whispered as she slowly took the flowers from him, eyes wide. When their fingers brushed each other I saw Bank take a deep breath through his nose, his shoulders rising. "Thank you so—"

"Okay, let'sgoKagome." Bank said in a rush, his words blending together. He turned on his heel and all but ran back towards me with his head down as all sixteen girls '_aww_'ed. I couldn't resist taking my phone out and snapping a picture.

I looked back to Rei as Bank brushed by me. She was staring at the door where Bank disappeared through and after another five seconds she looked down at the flowers in her hand and gave a small smile.

Mission Apologize: Success! Maybe I should have just gotten Inuyasha flowers last year instead of scaling his house and trying to sneak into his room.

"Bank," I said, after I walked out of the cabin. "That was so—"

"I am _never _doing that again," Bank cut me off, shaking his head. "I'm done with listening to you."

"Oh, _come on." _I ran in front of Bank so he was looking at me. "You should have seen the way she smiled at those flowers after you left. I'm telling you Bankoutsu, you are _so _in there."

Bank scrunched his nose up and grimaced. "That's not all guys think about."

"What are you—_ewwwwwww!" _I punched bank in the arm. "Don't turn an encouraging comment into a perverted saying."

"I was just—"

"No," I said holding out my hand. "Give me your phone."

"Why?"

"I am blocking all of Miroku's calls from your phone. He is proving to be a bad influence."

~0~

"I like Lion King. I like the season spring. I like swimming. And I like…" I paused for a second and stopped strumming my guitar to think for a second. "Onion rings! And I like to _paaaaarty_!"

"Are you good now?" Bank asked, looking over his shoulder at me. "Can we get serious?"

"You're way too serious to start with," I said, playing random notes, the vibration of the echo in the guitar was easy to feel against my stomach since I was lying down in the grass. "You should do what I do and sing random words to loosen up. It's very relaxing."

"Honestly, I'm kind of nervous," Bank mumbled, throwing a rock out into the lake, letting it sink instead of trying to skip it. I stopped playing and sat up, waiting for Bank to continue. "I mean"—he threw another rock—"what's she going to say?"

"Bank, it's going to be fine," I assured him, getting up to walk over to sit down beside him. "I'm telling you, the flowers were great. And your delivery of the apology? That was perfect." I reached over and pinched his cheek. "Very adorable."

"God," Bank buried his face and his in his hands. "I must have looked like an idiot."

"Your bashfulness was heartwarming."

"I must have looked like an idiot," Bank repeated, not even listening to me. "She's probably laughing her ass off right now."

"She's not."

"She _is_."

I sighed. It was obvious Bank was in deep denial about this and it was going to take a miracle to get him to see that what he did was really good. He's so optimistic about almost everything but throw a girl like Rei in front of him and he turns into a worry-wart, convinced everything he does is a set up for ultimate failure.

"Well, if you need to get it off your chest, you can always—" I strummed my guitar and lowered my voice, "—sing about it."

Bank cracked a smile and shook his head. "This may be the perfect setting for a High School Musical scene to play out, but that's not about to happen."

It was a joke Inuyasha made up at lunch last year. He kept saying that one day we were all going to get overly stressed about a gig and the only way to deal with it would be to break into song and dance just to get it off our chests.

"It would be a High School Musical takeover," Inuyasha would say. "Singing and dancing _everywhere."_

Senior Prank: gather a bunch of kids to perform a musical number during the middle of lass. No one would ever see it coming.

"The point was just to get you to smile." I lifted myself off the ground a bit and pulled a folded piece of paper out of my back pocket. "Here," I said, handing it over to Bank, "It's the list of possible covers I might perform."

"Yuuki can't stop you, huh?"

"Cause you can't stop the motion of the ocean on a Saturday night,_" _I said with a shrug.

"One, It's 'you can't stop the motion of the ocean _or the sun in the sky'_ and two, that's Hairspray, not High School Musical."

"A man who knows his musicals…" I stroked my chin and tilted my head to the side. "Are you positive you're straight? You never thought to even experiment with your sexuality a bit?"

"_NO!_" Bank shouted, throwing a small rock at my arm. "God, my brother is _Jakotsu. _When forced to sit through movie night with your family and it's his turn to pick, you just learn a few things."

"Likely story."

"Kagome!"

"I was just kidding!" I cried out, holding up my hands to stop any more rocks being fired. "Sheesh."

Bank just shook his head before finally unfolding my list. He read over it slowly, most likely trying to remember how each song sounded.

"Wonderwall," Bank said after five minutes of staring down at the list. "Definitely."

"You don't even want to try any of the other songs?"

"It's Wonderwall," Bank said again with an affirmative nod. "I am very confident about my decision."

"You're sure you don't want to even _try?_"

"You want to spend your time practicing on one song to make it perfect and not do a bunch of different songs and only give a half-ass performance?"

As always, Bank was right about this.

"Fine."

~0~

I was reminded again of the reason why I like trying to skip out on band practice whenever possible as I dragged myself back to the cabin. Bank. Is. A. Slave. Driver. A perfectionist to a flaw. Playing the same line over and over and _over _again gets _exhausting. _

It's only nine and even though I'm the kind of person who can stay up until three in the morning, wake up at seven and function semi-normally, all I can think about is sleep. I just want to change into my pajamas and—

"Kagome, you've got to save me!"

I winced at the sound of Aimi's voice and her strong grip on my shoulders. Do demons not understand their own strength?

"Can I not make it through the door without getting ambushed?"

"Kagome," Aimi said again, shaking me now, "we _have _to get the hell out of here. We are in serious danger!"

"Is the guy from Chainsaw Massacre here to chop us to shreds?"

"No, it's worse!" Aimi gave a dramatic pause and then leaned in close so her eyes were only an inch or two away. "Ms. E is gathering us for a _bonding game," _Aimi said, shuddering.

"Aimi, really," I moved past her, her hands falling off my shoulders. "You are stressing way too much over a little game. And frankly, I'm tired so you yelling in my ear is not making me happy."

"Your apathetic tone isn't making _me _happy," Aimi huffed, crossing her arms. "It's insulting."

"Hey," Sango greeted me once Aimi and I made it to our bunks and I got down on my knees to shove my guitar under the bed.

I offered a lazy wave back at her as I climbed the ladder to my bunk and collapsed against my lumpy pillow (the candy bag forming the lumps). I'm so tired I might not make it into my pajamas. Really, was sleepwear all that necessary to begin with?

"Are you alright?" Rei asked. "You look kind of… tired."

"She means you look like crap," Aimi was so kind to clarify for me. "What happened?"

"Practice with Bank happened," I mumbled into my pillow. "He's such a perfectionist."

"He's really passionate about music," Sango said. Of course she would side with him; she's used to his disciplinary side since she's always practicing with him. "He really wants you to do good if he was pushing you really hard."

"Bankoutsu is an ass," I whined into my pillow. "He's so mean; he wouldn't give me a break."

"He really wants you to do well," Sango repeated as if it was going to heal my sore fingers and vocal chords or get rid of the lyrics that were playing over and over again in my head. How am I going to rest with '_Because maybe you're going to be the one who saves me' _playing on repeat?

My phone rang before I had a chance to say anything and I fished it out of my pocket and hit talk before bringing it to my ear. It was about 9:30, around the time Inuyasha usually calls, so I didn't even bother with checking the ID.

"I really miss talking to you," I mumbled into the phone, rolling over on to my back, hoping Inuyasha's voice would spark my energy again. Damn Bankoutsu and his practice. "You should call more often. Like, the mornings too."

"_Really? That's great because I was so nervous about calling you. My hands were litterly shaking when I typed in your number but when you said that—"_

I shot up in my bed and pulled my phone away from my ear. That was _not _Inuyasha. I looked down at my screen and felt the color drain from my face when I read 'Creeper'.

"Oh my god," I groaned. I put the phone back to my ear, hoping this was all just some crazy hallucination I was going through.

"…_and that picture you sent was—"_

I ended the call and tossed my phone over to the farthest edge of my bed. Hojo called me. _He has my number!_

"That was Hojo just now," Aimi announced to everybody, having heard him through the phone with her superhuman hearing. "Didn't I tell you that you were going to regret sending that picture?"

"Yes…"

"So are you going to ever doubt my intense feelings again?"

"No…"

"Glad to have proven my point," Aimi said with a smug grin and I glared at her.

"This is not a joke!" I looked around at them. "He might hook up with the FBI and get them to trace my phone and he could use it as a tracking device. I might have gained a true, legit stalker!"

"I think you're overreacting," Sango said, trying to calm me down. "You're making it sound as if Hojo is a super-stalker when he's really just a… guy who's really, _really _infatuated with you."

"That," I told Sango, "makes him a super-stalker."

"We need to devise a plan to steal his phone and delete your number from it," Aimi said and I nodded my head, liking the idea. "We start at dawn."

"That's a Lion King quote!" I shouted, unable to resist myself. Aimi and Sango gave me unimpressed looks and I shrunk back into the wall that served as a headboard. "Sorry."

"That's not even a significant enough line to be counted as a Lion King quote," Sango said, shaking her head. "Anybody could say that."

"Whatever."

"And sneaking into the boys cabin with the risk of getting in major trouble for a phone you could probably just ask for tomorrow morning is stupid," Sango said, being the voice of reason in our group. "If you just ask nicely he'll hand over his phone and then you can delete the number."

"There is no fun in that," Aimi mumbled, crossing her arms. "I say we should get another opinion on this. Rei?"

We all looked over to Rei who, evidentially, wasn't listening to our insignificant argument and instead was staring at a flower Bank had given her and smiling at it, rolling the stem back and forth in her hand.

"Rei!"

"Huh?" Rei asked, snapping out of her daze. She jumped from the shock of Aimi's loud voice in her ear and hit her head against the bunk. "Ow…"

"So should we play it safe and ask for the phone or infiltrate the boy's cabin?"

"What?" she asked confused.

"Hojo? Phone number? Super-Stalker?" I asked, hoping one of the words would set off the light bulb in Rei's head. It's great that she's daydreaming about Bank, but we have a _serious _problem here.

"Oh…" Rei finally said after a minute, nodding her head. "Do you even know which cabin he's staying in."

Aimi and I were quiet.

"Well, I guess that settles it," Sango said shooting us a superior grin and I crossed my arm. Now I'll have to actually _talk _to him and pretend to be charming to get my phone number deleted from his phone.

"_Hello girls!"_

Aimi winced at Ms. E's loud entrance and moved to bury herself under her covers as if it would make her invisible. The lump her body makes in the bed gives her away no matter what.

"Why don't you all come down and get in a circle like we did on the first day of camp so we can get ready to play this game I found out about!" Ms. E winked at us and I immediately had a bad feeling but climbed out of my bed anyway. "You too Ms. Hirose," Ms. E called up to Aimi and Aimi begrudgingly came out from under the covers and marched over to join the circle, mumbling "unhappy" words under her breath the entire time.

"Here, pass a can to everybody." Ms. E told Kazumi, the photographer, handing her a case of soda. She then stepped into the middle of our circle and clapped her hands together smiling that creepily perky smile. "We are going to play…" She paused for dramatic effect and Aimi rolled her eyes beside me. "_Never have I ever!_"

Shit.

_Never have I ever_ is a luck game, in my opinion. Only if you have good luck no one has done what you have. It's a very revealing game in a way, perfect for cabin bonding.

"I'll start us off," Ms. E offered once each of us had a can and she explained the rules to those who didn't already know how to play. "Never have I ever broken into somebody's house," she said with a smile and looked around appreciatively at all the girls who didn't take a sip from their cans.

I lowered my head and took a sip of Mountain Dew. I could tell Ms. E was disappointed in me and shocked even though she kept that ridiculous smile on her face.

I've always had shitty luck.

~0~

"I officially hate _never have I ever," _I told Aimi as I sat on my bed in my pajamas, eating my candy now that Ms. E has fled the premises. "What idiot thought of that game?"

My luck had been horrible tonight. Not only had someone never broken into a house, they never went trespassing, went to a bar under aged, drove without a license, got in a fight at school, cheated on a test, lied on a job application, crashed a car, got caught making out by their guardian (Jii-chan was pretty livid that day), or skipped school. All that stuff makes me look like a horrible kid… I did almost everything for a good cause!

I can proudly say I have never gotten wasted or had sex so, technically, I'm still an innocent child, despite that look Ms. E kept giving me that said she thought I was supposed to be locked up somewhere.

"I'm pretty sure a group of girls at a sleepover came up with it and that's way too many girls to try to attack without raising suspicions." Aimi slid under her covers, yawning. "I told you we should have run while we still had the chance."

"I get it; do not doubt Aimi and her instincts."

"Good." Aimi yawned and she turned on her side, her back to me. "Goodnight."

"Already?"

I was only met with light snoring and I just shook my head. I looked down to see Sango putting her book under her bed and Rei putting her flowers in a makeshift vase she made out of her water bottle. I guess it was later than I thought.

My phone rang just before I was about to lie down and go to sleep myself and I got it out from under my pillow. I checked the caller ID this time before answering.

"You're calling pretty late," I whispered. A lot of my cabin mates were falling asleep and it felt awkward talking to Inuyasha when it was so quiet. I crept out of bed and down the ladder, heading outside to sit on the porch. "It's about bedtime here."

"Sorry,"Inuyasha apologized. Just hearing his voice made me smile. "I was out late with Miroku, Kouga, and Kenji. We went broke at an arcade and I just got back home."

"That sounds fun."

"What? Are you already not liking camp?"

"No, it's fun, it's just…" I sighed. "You know that girl who knew me as 'the girl who ran off stage crying'?"

"Yeah."

"Yes, well it turns out she's a super bitch and I have somehow become her target." I went on to tell Inuyasha all about dinner tonight, sitting back to rest against the side of the cabin. The porch light went off meaning it was lights out and I was supposed to be inside the cabin, but I didn't move. "Camp is supposed to be fun," I mumbled into the phone. "It's kind of suckish."

"It has only been three days, Kagome," Inuyasha pointed out, "It can't be that bad."

"It's not _that _bad, but I am a fan of over exaggerating." I smiled when Inuyasha laughed. "I convinced Bank to give flowers to the girl he likes and I was even kind enough to get you a picture."

Inuyasha let out a loud laugh then. "I can't wait to see that."

"I'll send it to you after I get off the phone." I brought my knees up to my chest, resting my chin on my knees. "So how was your day today?"

We proceeded to talk on the phone for another hour. I told him about Ms. E and that stupid game—it is now so stupid that it is banned from my vocabulary—Bank and his Hooters comment, Portraits with Ms. Fujimoto, and my discovery of hot water in the showers by the lake. I left out everything that had to do with Hojo since this is _Inuyasha _I'm talking to. He told me about his day too which consisted of work, being lazy, and then hanging out at the arcade with the rest of the guys.

"I also worked on your welcome home present today too," Inuyasha said, loving to make me anxious about gifts.

"Already? I've only been gone for _three days."_

"Yeah, but I still kind of want you back home already."

I smiled but still asked, "Kind of?"

"Even as the world's best girlfriend, you have quite the talent for nagging. It hurts my ears."

"Inuyasha!" I laughed a bit and smiled. "So… what is it?"

"You know by now that I love surprising you." I could practically hear his grin through the phone. God I want to see that smile. "You'll just have to wait."

"Why do you tell me this just to make me all anxious?"

"I don't know," Inuyasha said. "It makes me smile."

"Are you smiling right now?"

"Yes, but that's because I'm talking to you."

My heart swelled inside my chest and I smiled into my knees. "I'm smiling too."

It was quiet and I just listened to his breathing, glad to know he was still there. In three days Inuyasha will be here to visit and then I could actually see him. I'm not a clingy girlfriend or anything, but I am entitled to the right to miss my boyfriend even though it's only been three days.

"What are you wearing right now?"

"Inuyasha!" I yelled, before remembering it was lights out and I was supposed to be quiet so I lowered my voice. "Don't be such a perv."

"It was a legit question," Inuyasha laughed. "I'll get us started. Right now I am laying in my bed wearing only my—"

"Seriously, I am about to hang up on you," I threatened, biting my lip to keep from laughing. "It's past one o'clock in the morning."

"So?"

"So, I can't sleep in like you tomorrow." Another thing to add to the dislikes list. "I have to go to bed."

"Fine," Inuyasha sighed. He was quiet for a minute. "I love you."

"I love you too," I whispered, staring up at the stars. "I can't wait until Saturday."

"Me either. In three days time I'll be there."

"Okay. Bye."

"Goodnight Kagome."

"Sweet dreams."

I waited for a minute, just listening to his breathing again and he still didn't hang up. I would have just gone to sleep with him still on the phone, but my battery was dying and it needed a charger and there were no outlets by my bunk.

"I love you," I whispered into the phone and I smiled when Inuyasha said, "Me too."

Still not liking it, I finally hung up and went into the cabin to get some sleep.

~0~

You know the feeling you get when you wake up in the middle of a great sleep and you have to pee? You have to go but you don't want to because you're in the perfect position so you wait until the very last minute before bolting from your bed? Yeah, I really need to break that habit.

Waiting until the last minute to pee is fine when I'm at home and the bathroom is across the hall from my room, but it's not okay at camp. It's really hard to do the pee-pee dance while climbing down a ladder and the bathroom is down a _trail. _A legit dirt, rock, twig, and animal infested trail. At four in the morning.

I only wished I realized all of this before I decided to hold it until the last minute. It's all that soda I was forced to drink. Another reason to hate _that _game.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap," I mumbled as I slowly inched my way to the cabin door, my legs squeezed together as far as they could go as I tried walking. I wish I packed a flashlight too, like suggested in the material list. Phones prove to be a useless guiding source.

After making it out of the cabin I developed a system for making it to the bathroom without pissing all over myself. I would pause to keep it together before running as fast as I could and then stopping to jog in place to hold it together again and then bolting again. It was working so far and I estimate about only three more cycles before I make it to the bathroom.

The bathroom had finally come into view and I skipped jogging in place and bolted towards the lavatory, but a cabin that is usually used for practice caught my eye. The lights were on and I could make up two people through the window.

Though I was about to burst, curiosity always gets the better of me so I crept up to the window of the cabin and peeked in.

My jaw dropped.

There was Yuuki and she was all _over _a guy that wasn't Ichiro (who Aimi claimed Yuuki was determined to hook up with). Instead the counselor that told me which cabin I was in on the first day was the guy who had his hands roaming all over Yuuki. The same guy all those girls were gaga over was hooking up with Yuuki.

I was still jogging in place and even though I was about to explode I pulled my phone out and snapped a picture, the two too busy to notice me staring through the window. It's wrong, but when dealing with certain people, I am a big fan of blackmail.

I looked down at my phone and smirked. I wasn't going to use it unless the time really called for it, but it's always good to have something like this in your back pocket.

I put my screen back to its main background and used it as a light as I made a mad dash to the bathroom, smiling all the way there.

_**-0-0-0-0-**_

_**It's done! And I must thank the amazing hanmajoerin for getting all this edited! I still have psych h.w—I always wait until the last minute to do the reading—and PSATs are tomorrow and my mom says she'll get me a laptop if I do well on them and that will really help with the updating, so I should try some of the practice problems, but I REALLY wanted this updated so I waited until hanmajo finished editing and you were able to read this chapter! Visitor's Day will definitely be next chapter because I myself need massive forms of inukag fluff so I'll be working on that in the middle of my classes. While I was away though, I did start a story Walking Tightropes and a short drabble collections of all canon couple, I Have a Confession To Make. And I wrote a oneshot Blind so you can read some of those if you want but AFTER you REVIEW! Please and thank you!**_

_**~Kimiko888~**_

**Dear Confessions,**

**You've been missed more than a ho who has been torn from her pimp.**

**Love,**

**hanmajoerin. Who has, edited.**

_**-0-0-0-0-**_


	8. Confession 7: I Snuck off Camp Grounds

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any songs**

**It's Visitor's Day! And visitor's day means Inuyasha is coming which means InuKag fluff which just makes me happy. I was stuck on how to start this chapter for THREE hours, but after typing and deleting I finally just decided to dive right into InuKag fluff and work out the details I was trying to fit in later. Please enjoy!**

**_Confessions of a Band Camp Geek_**

_Reunited and it feels so good  
Reunited 'cause we understood  
There's one perfect fit  
And, sugar, this one is it  
We both are so excited 'cause we're reunited, hey, hey_

_-Peaches and Herb "Reunited"_

**Confession #7: I snuck off camp grounds**

I hate summer. I hate the unforgiving sun, the heat, the heavy stickiness in the air—I hate it all. My shirt is practically glued to my torso with a sheen of sweat because a goddamn cloud won't come by and block the sun. Yeah, summer's great because there's no school, but there's something we all forget about summertime: it's _hot_.

And now I'm supposed to meet Inuyasha while I'm sweaty and smell like an armpit. I don't really want the first thing Inuyasha does when he sees me after a week to be covering his nose.

"Can it get any hotter?" Sango moaned as we (me, Sango, Rei, and Aimi) lied stretched out under the shade of a tree. "It's as hot as Satan's balls out here."

"Oh my God, Sango," Rei laughed. "Satan's balls? Really?"

"I've been hanging out with the band for too long," Sango groaned, rolling onto her stomach and burying her face in her hands.

"If my parents weren't going to be here in a minute, I'd almost be tempted to take a cold shower," Aimi mumbled, rolling onto her stomach as well. "God, I really feel like a cat. I want to take a nap."

"You are a cat, Aimi."

"What time is it?" Aimi asked, ignoring me.

Rei pulled her phone out and held it up above her head, squinting at the screen. "5:55. They'll let visitors in, in five minutes."

"I can't take a nap in five minutes."

There is also no time to try to make myself look better either. I don't know how many times I've put on deodorant in the last thirty minutes, but I still seem to sweat it out every two minutes. In this heat, deodorant is useless. That's why I've been fanning myself and trying (and failing) to keep my shirt from sticking to me for the entire hour we've been laying outside. I don't want my family or Inuyasha to have to hug a sweaty me. Maybe I should change my shirt…

"Hey," Sango spoke up, rolling over to face Aimi. "This will be the perfect time for you to meet Raiden's parents."

"After all the humiliation I've suffered through this week in that godforsaken dance class? Ha," Aimi laughed with no inflection. "Yeah, maybe when I don't smell like Satan's balls."

"I said it's as _hot _as Satan's balls, not that we smell like them."

"We sound like a bunch of guys," Rei said, scrunching her nose up.

"We _smell _like a bunch of guys." I sat up, peeling the back of my shirt away from my skin, trying to air out my back. "We should head to the drop off site now."

"Right."

Nobody moved.

"All this heat is making us lazy," Rei mumbled. "And sweaty."

I lifted my arm and sniffed my pits. "Okay, I'm going to change."

"You really smell that bad?" Sango asked, a smile on her lips.

"Shut up!" I shouted, standing up and kicking nonexistent dirt at her. "At least I care enough about other's feelings to not repulse them with my sweat."

"Inuyasha is going to jump on you the second he sees you no matter how bad you smell," Sango waved off. "It's sickening how much he cares about you." She tipped her head back and smiled up at me, showing she was only joking.

I rolled my eyes. "I'll see you later."

"I want to meet your boyfriend!" Aimi shouted as I headed up the hill where our cabin sat on top of. "Don't go run off without a proper introduction first."

"Okay."

I started sprinting up the hill to get to the cabin as fast as possible, and somewhere along the way my phone fell out of my back pocket so I quickly bent over to pick it up. Out of habit, I went to my pictures and stared at the one I had taken the other night. I had taken up to staring at it because of this _stupid _nagging voice that had taken a permanent residence in my head.

I was starting to feel guilty.

Using a picture as blackmail is a low, underhanded trick that people with no hearts pull as a weak act of revenge. I usually would never stoop so low, but in the middle of the night I took that picture and now it's here, on my phone, in my hand. The decision to take the high road is so much harder now that I've given myself the option to take the low road.

It would be great if I was really a kind hearted person who could feel other's pain in my actions, but it's hard to think about the fact that Yuuki may really love this guy, or this guy may lose his job when Yuuki has gone out of her way to piss me off these past three days. You know, maybe if she hadn't tripped me in the mess hall (making me cover myself in spaghetti), or poured syrup over my swimsuit (I'm so lucky to have her in Swimming with me), or stomped on the drawing I did in Portraits when I dropped it on the way to a bonfire when I was showing it to Bank, then _maybe _I would have been able to delete the picture. But no, she had to be a supreme bitch and now I'm stuck contemplating which of my morals would I be okay tossing away.

The unrelenting bitchery I've been receiving from her makes me wonder if she somehow knows I know she's hooking up with that counselor. I can't remember doing anything else that deserves this kind of reaction. Maybe she saw the flash go off through the window, or heard me running away. But if she did know shouldn't she be treating me better? Knowing I have the very picture that could lead to her demise is rather life staking. The only thing I might have done was that brief attack at her pride the other day, but if that's what this is about, then she has some serious mental issues because this is _overreacting._

Another reason to not like Talent: the people here are nutcases. Really, Ms. E, Kiyoko, Hojo, and now Yuuki; there are just too many whackos for my liking.

I snapped my phone shut. There was no time to worry about Yuuki and her mental issues; Inuyasha is coming and that's all that matters.

I ran into the cabin and pulled my shirt off over as quickly as possible and dried myself down with a towel. I then deodorized for the _trillionth _time and grabbed some body spray that Sango had left on top of her duffel bag. I sprayed it in the air and ran through the mist. Sango was laughing now, but while she smells like Satan's ball sack, I'm going to smell like a cucumber melon.

I dug in my trunk and pulled out the first shirt my fingers graced (Kovu's shirt from my Lion King collection; very fitting) and pulled in over my head before running back out of the cabin, full speed, determined to be there the second they allowed visitors in.

~0~

This is what I imagined when I came to the parking lot: Inuyasha would see me coming over the hill and give me his classic half-smirk half-smile and start walking towards me. As the distance between us grew shorter I wouldn't be able to control myself anymore and I would start sprinting towards his open arms. I would then jump into his embrace and shower him in kisses as if he had just come back from war. Then I would pull back and Inuyasha would be giving me one of his amazing, but rare smiles.

"I love you, Kagome," is what he'd say, his voice barely above a whisper. "I love you so much."

Clearly, I've been watching way too many movies. Scenes like that just don't happen in reality.

What really happened was not something I pictured; I spotted Inuyasha first, leaning against his car. After waiting _forever _for him to notice me, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer and I approached him. He was so focused on glaring at something he didn't even notice me when I leaned next to him against the car.

"To be honest, I was hoping for a bone crushing hug when you saw me, but I guess I'll have to settle for that unattractive scowl. I missed your smile so much too." I scoffed and crossed my arms. "I had this great romantic scene played out in my head too and you completely ruined it."

Inuyasha's ear twitched once in my direction before he turned around to face me, smiling as he hooked his fingers through the front belt loops of my shorts and pulled me against him. I rested my hands on his hips and tilted my head up as he leaned in close, his eyes beginning to smolder.

"Hey Kagome," he whispered, his lips were so close I felt the words more than heard them. I closed my eyes and I leaned into him when my knees went weak. "Did you miss me?"

This is _way _better than that romantic scene. This has Inuyasha stamped all over it which makes it perfect.

"Hmm…" I hummed in reply, standing on my toes to mash our lips together like I've been dying to do for the past week. He still smelled like Ivory Soap and whatever intoxicating cologne he used. His breath was still minty fresh. "Breath mints?" I asked in the brief second we pulled apart for needed oxygen.

Inuyasha chuckled, already leaning back in, and I felt the vibration through his chest against me. "You know me too well."

I love kisses like these, the ones that are mind blowing because there's love rather than intense passions (though those are really good too). Inuyasha only indulged in these slow, meaningful kisses when we were alone so the fact that he was completely disregarding everyone else told me that he missed me more than his cool act was letting on.

"Get a room!"

And, as usual, Bank had to come along and ruin my moment of complete bliss. I curled my fingers into the edge of Inuyasha's shirt as if it would keep his lips on mine longer, but the moment was broken and he pulled away. He kissed my forehead and I let out a slow breath before opening my eyes. I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my cheek on his chest, looking in Bank's direction while Inuyasha wrapped an arm around my waist and leaned back against his car.

"Can we help you?" There was only a little irritation in my voice. I was starting to get used to Bank's interruptions over the months, but I still didn't like them.

"I can't say hi to one of my good friends?" Bank asked as he exchanged some complicated handshake with Inuyasha.

Not a minute after we just reunited.

"Not when your timing is horrible," Inuyasha answered. "Enjoying camp?"

"Do I enjoy getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and sharing a cabin with fifteen other guys? _Of course, _I'm loving camp." Bank rolled his eyes and Inuyasha laughed. "It's alright. Your girlfriend here loves to keep me busy. She's on the verge of declaring war on this girl."

"That Yuuki girl? Kagome describes her as being a real bitch."

"Yeah. I see Kagome here is keeping you up to date on camp gossip."

I smiled, proud of myself. "I do try."

"Yeah, she's even got me caught up with your romantic life." Bank started to blush while Inuyasha laughed. "Where is the lucky lady that caught this douche's attention?"

"I think Rei's family came down this weekend so she's with them. Oh! You can get the awkward part out of the way and meet her family now, Bank!" I said smiling at Bank who looked like he was going to be sick or start to hyperventilate.

"That is the stupidest idea I've ever heard!" Bank shouted. "I would just look like some creep if I did that."

"You would look like a friend of Rei's who has enough manners to introduce yourself. Ichiro is getting all this play with the family because he already knows them and her parents probably already _love _him and you're just lagging behind. Slackers never win, Bank."

"Ichiro is your competition, right?" Inuyasha asked for confirmation.

"God, Kagome did you tell him _everything?_" Bank shook his head and sighed. "And he's not my competition. He's just a friend of Rei's from back home."

"Denial," I said shaking my head. "Also not healthy."

"Well, I came over to say hi, but Kagome is driving me crazy with all this stupid stuff so I'm going to leave. I'll see you later Inuyasha. I think I saw my Mom pull up not too long ago…"

"Cowards never win either!" I shouted to Bank's back and he just tossed a hand over his shoulder. "He'll be back," I told Inuyasha. "He sucks at romance and he'll come crawling to me for advice. Actually, where's Mom and Jii-chan? And Souta?" I just remembered that my family was also supposed to be here. Cue that guilty feeling for being so excited about my boyfriend that I forgot about my family. I looked around us, but I still didn't see them anywhere. "Weren't they supposed to be riding up with you?"

"Yeah…" Inuyasha scratched the back of his neck, a sure sign that he was nervous about something. "About that…"

"What do you mean by 'about that'?" I didn't like the way Inuyasha was presenting this issue. It just sounded like something I wasn't going to like. "What's going on?"

"So you know those sweepstakes your grandpa is always applying for?"

"Those stupid things that take up all his time on Sundays? Yeah, I'm not new to the territory."

"Well, he finally won." Inuyasha gave me a sheepish grin. "They went to Hawaii."

I blinked twice. I had to have heard that wrong because what kind of _cruel _and _heartless _people would fly off to Hawaii and leave me behind at camp. My family loves me; they wouldn't go on a trip like that without me. They would at least call me if they did.

"That's not a funny joke, Inuyasha," I frowned.

"Which is why it's not a joke." My jaw dropped, my shoulders dropped. "Kagome, they—"

"They left me here to rot!" I shouted and Inuyasha flinched, flattening his ears against his head. "They just left me here, suffering at camp, while they went partying in Hawaii! Do they have _no _compassion, no hearts!"

"I highly doubt they're the partying type…"

"They're in frickin' _Hawaii! _They're _living._"

"Aloha!" Aimi called as she walked towards us, draping an arm around my shoulders. "Hawaii is a _beautiful_ place."

"Yeah?" I sulked. "I wouldn't know."

Honestly, how can they just leave me at this disgusting excuse for summer fun and go to Hawaii? They could have picked me up. I'm sure missing a week of camp wasn't going to hurt anyone. Take a trip to Disney World, fine, but _Hawaii_? You have _got _to be kidding me.

"Don't worry about it Kagome," Inuyasha spoke up, reading my thoughts. "We'll go to Hawaii ourselves one day."

Well, looking at that as my consolation prize, I can't be too upset.

"Well isn't he a smooth negotiator?" Aimi mumbled in my ear before turning to extend her hand to Inuyasha. "Kagome promised I would get to meet this guy she won't shut up about and now that you two are done sucking faces we can have the proper introduction. Hi, I'm Aimi."

Inuyasha looked down at Aimi's clawed hand as he took it, sniffing the air before grimacing. "You're a neko demon."

"And you're a mangy mutt."

"Aimi!"

Inuyasha scowled. "You're—"

"Your girlfriend's new buddy." Aimi gave Inuyasha a smug smile and Inuyasha glared down at her. "I suggest you think long and hard about what you're about to say."

"You—"

"Oh look, I see Raiden. Bye!" Aimi cut Inuyasha off before he could make his rebuttal (which is going to annoy the hell out of Inuyasha. He _always_ needs the last word) and removed her arm from around my shoulders. "I'll see you back at the cabin, Kagome. Nice meeting you dog breath!"

"I…" Inuyasha trailed off as he watched Aimi disappear. "I don't like her."

"Is it because she's a cat?"

"No! She reminds me of Kouga. And she's a cat, yeah."

"Don't worry about it," I told him, standing on the tips of my toes to give him a peck on the lips. "You'll learn to love her."

Inuyasha wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me against him, his lips inching closer to mine. "I highly doubt it."

"In a matter of time," I whispered before I was pulled in to another one of those mind blowing kisses. Separation truly does make the heart grow fonder. "Besides," I started when we finally pulled apart, "there are a lot more people you'll hate much more than Aimi."

"Who?"

Mrs. Fujimoto, Yuuki, Ichiro, _Hojo. _But why ruin this perfect reunion with such an ugly thing like hate?

"You'll meet them later," I promised, smiling up at Inuyasha. I took his hand and led him away from everybody. "Let's just hang out together for now."

"You don't want to introduce me to the rest of your friends?"

"I'd rather be alone with you." I looked over my shoulder and Inuyasha had a content look on his face. "Is that alright with you?"

Inuyasha gave me a lazy grin, sliding his free hand into his pocket as he let me drag him away from the mass of reuniting people.

'"It's perfect."

~0~

"It's not _our _lake or anything, but I thought it would suffice."

I led Inuyasha to the bank of the lake and sat down on the damp grass. I started taking off my shoes as Inuyasha plopped down beside me, rolling up his jeans and removing his socks and shoes too. We slipped our feet into the cold water, Inuyasha's foot coming to bush against mine and I smiled. I reached for his hand and laced our fingers together, resting my head on his shoulder and his cheek rested on top of my head.

I loved moments like this between us, when it was _just _us. Inuyasha was always the most romantic (as romantic as a slightly romantically awkward teen can get) when we were alone.

"I missed you," Inuyasha whispered into my hair and I smiled down at our reflection as it rippled in the water.

"It's only been a week," I mumbled and I felt Inuyasha tense, preparing to make some manly comeback, but I continued before he had a chance. "I bet I missed you more."

Inuyasha let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my waist, kissing my forehead. "I'd take that bet."

"I wished you didn't suck at artsy things. Then you could have just come to Talent with me and we wouldn't have to wait for Visitor Days to see each other."

"It sucks to be musically challenged. But I have football practice all summer anyways."

It is official: football is a stupid sport.

"Next summer we're just going to have to spend a lot of time together," I concluded. We were silent for a while; listening to the crickets chirp and the cicadas hum and watching fireflies flicker in the distance. "I love you," I whispered barely audible, but by the way Inuyasha's grip tightened around my waist, I knew he heard me.

"I l—"

"Kagome!" I whipped my head around to see Hojo jogging down the hill towards us and Inuyasha removed his arm from my waist, leaning back to get a good look at Hojo. Wanting to strangle Hojo's neck doesn't even sound like a worthy punishment for ruining that moment.

"A friend of yours?" Inuyasha asked.

"Not exactly…"

"Fancy meeting you here," Hojo greeted me when he finally reached the bottom of the hill.

Yeah, seeing Hojo at the lake—the lake nobody in their right mind goes to alone at night because of some stupid haunted story—during visitor's night. Some fancy. He just _murdered _a moment.

I offered him a very forced smile over my shoulder. "Hey, Hojo."

Hojo stopped about five feet away from us and glanced at Inuyasha. "You must be the famous boyfriend I keep hearing about." He smiled at Inuyasha. "I envy you for being able to be with a beautiful goddess such as Kagome."

Inuyasha quirked a brow. "Really?"

_Don't answer that, _I silently begged. Inuyasha's tone wasn't an "interested" tone. It was a "you-might-want-to-shut-your-fuckin'-mouth-right-now" kind of tone.

"What I wouldn't give to be in your place. To have Kagome…" Hojo's eyes glazed over and Inuyasha's narrowed. "That would be a dream come true."

Idiot.

I watched as Inuyasha's jaw clenched, suppressing a growl I recognized as possessive. I rubbed my foot against Inuyasha's (where it was still hidden under the water) to try to calm him down. Did Hojo have a death wish or something? Dog demons _don't _share.

Inuyasha stared at Hojo for a few more seconds before pulling his feet from the water and standing up.

"What are you—" Inuyasha pulled me up before I had the chance to finish and then turned to face Hojo.

"Hobo, right?"

"Actually—"

"Close enough."

I stepped up beside Inuyasha cautiously. If he was going to attack, I would at least have to make an effort at trying to hold him back. Inuyasha draped an arm over my shoulders and pulled me close to him, not once looking away from Hojo.

He was jealous of Hojo.

. . .

Ha! That completely irrational thought just makes me laugh. Ha ha ha ha! Look, I'm laughing!

"You said Kagome mentioned I was her boyfriend, right?"

Hojo looked confused. "Uh… yeah."

"So you understand that means she's _my _girlfriend, as in she's dating _me _and she isn't some kind of whore that would even _think _about cheating." Oh God. "You get that?"

Hojo finally seemed to realize the insanity Inuyasha was capable of (thinking Hojo was actual competition—ha!) and he took a few steps back. "Um… I think I'm going to see if my mom is here yet."

Inuyasha pulled me even closer to him, still glowering at Hojo. "You go do that."

We watched Hojo scurry pack up the hill and disappear before I turned to face Inuyasha, shrugging his arm off my shoulders.

"You're such an overprotective bully." I looked up at him. "If you don't watch yourself you're going to turn into one of those cliché, football playing jerks who terrorize the obviously wimpy kids and I don't date cliché characters."

Inuyasha laughed and rested his hands on my hips, his forehead coming down to meet mine. "Is that one of the people you said I'd hate?"

"Yup."

"I hate him. He needs to learn how to see the fucking boundary line."

I laughed lightly and wrapped my arms around Inuyasha's neck. He hooked his fingers through the two belt loops in the front of my jean shorts and pulled me against him, causing goose bumps to run down the length of my arms. They were the good kind.

"How much trouble would you get in if I stole you away for the rest of the night?"

"A lot." I didn't even have to think about it; Kiyoko would kill me. "But that's only if I get caught."

"Hate to break it to you, but we always get caught."

"The hundredth time's the charm."

"Seriously?" Inuyasha's ears perked up and his face lit up like mine did in a candy store.

I stepped back and placed my hands on my hips. "No, I don't want to sneak out in the middle of the night with my incredibly handsome boyfriend who is being spontaneously romantic. Honestly, why would I want to do that?"

"So that's a yes."

"Of course, stupid." I grabbed his hand and my shoes and he followed in suit. "I just have to get my cover story set up and you should probably meet everybody before we got vanishing in the night. Don't want them sending out a search party for me."

Inuyasha scoffed as we started up the hill. "It's not like I'd ever let anything happen to you."

"I know."

~0~

"How good are you at thumb wrestling because I have yet to be defeated?"

Inuyasha gave Raiden a funny look. "What?"

"It's just this thing he and Sho have been doing all week," I explained. "They challenge each other on a lot of things and this week just so happened to be thumb wrestling."

"Next week we're doing yo' momma jokes," Sho informed us. "Are you any good at that?"

I thought back to all the "jokes" (that sometimes held hostility) Inuyasha and Kouga threw at each other and the stories Inuyasha told me about the boys' locker room. "He's a pro."

After walking around the camp grounds for thirty minutes trying to find my friends, we finally found most of them congregating by the mess hall, waiting for the late night snacks to be served. On Visitor's Day the kitchen cooks a bunch of food for the parents to try, but most campers take advantage of the extra food.

"Do you know where Sango is?" I asked Aimi who was playing go fish with Jakotsu and one of Jakotsu's drama friends whose name I already forgot.

"Nope. Do you have any sevens?" Aimi cursed when Jakotsu shook his head and picked a card from the deck. "But, I met her boyfriend and my guess would be that they're off in the bushes somewhere."

"Miroku should have stayed around longer so I could say hi. Do you know where Bank is?"

"Pining for Rei?"

"Do you know where Rei is then?"

"With Ichiro?"

"Do you—"

"Do I _look _like somebody who knows where the devil's spawn resides?"

At that moment she did.

"I'm guessing the correct answer would be no." I sighed. Did everybody else decide to sneak off campgrounds too? "Well, I'm not going to be back by lights out so I need you to cover for me and just stuff some stuff under my covers to make it look like I'm sleeping."

"That's a very uncreative trick, Kags," Aimi advised me as she handed a card over to Jakotsu's friend. "We're dealing with _Kiyoko _here. That woman can smell a broken rule from miles away."

"Please Aimi? I just need to get out of here."

Aimi casted a suspicious look in Inuyasha's direction as he thumb wrestled Raiden. "What exactly do you plan on doing that requires you to sneak off of camp grounds? It is only seven, Kagome."

"Get your head out of the gutter," I told her. "We just feel like driving. It's just what we do."

"It really is what they do," Jakotsu backed me up. "They're just freaks of nature that like wasting a bunch of gas."

"You see," I started, "proof that I'm not going to do anything bad. So you'll cover for me?"

"Yeah, I gotcha'. You had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night or something like that."

"Thank you, Aimi!" I gave her a quick hug and then grabbed Inuyasha's hand and dragged him away from his match with Raiden. "I'll see you later."

"You better! The last thing I need is to hear something about you turning up dead in the lake."

"Nothing's going to happen to her," Inuyasha promised, glaring at Aimi for even suggesting the possibility and Aimi just rolled her eyes. "Not while I'm here."

Lion King quote! I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut this time though, seeing as that line wasn't the most significant.

"You and Aimi need to get over the whole cat and dog thing and just get along," I told Inuyasha as we approached his car. I did a quick check around the parking lot to make sure no counselors were watching and ducked into Inuyasha's car. I buckled myself in the passenger's seat and then pulled the lever, reclining the seat so I was basically lying down. "Oh, how I've missed these seats. And you still have your blanket!" I leaned forward and opened the glove department. "Chips too."

"I switched it up though," Inuyasha said as he started backing out of the parking space. "I got barbeque instead of original."

"Ooh, daring." I opened Inuyasha armrest to pick a CD to listen to on our way to the mysterious, undecided place. "Any preferences this evening?"

"Surprise me."

I took the Anberlin CD from the armrest and slid it in, skipping to fourth track. It just had the kind of tone I was looking for at the moment.

_Oh how I've tried to get you out of my head  
And I lied, the broken words I said  
Never thought I'd walk on this street again  
Standing where it all began_

And I tried to forget  
When I left this town  
But it takes me right back  
When I come back around

"_Retrace the steps we took on that long summer night_," I sang along with the chorus and Inuyasha wrapped his hand around mine. _"I'm back there by your side. Retrace the steps we took when we met; Worlds away, counting backwards while the stars are falling_."

"I see this camp is really helping you with your singing," Inuyasha said as he let go of my hand and reached into the back seat and threw the blanket over me, effectively hiding me from the counselor that was waiting by the entrance. He waited a minute before he allowed me to remove the blanket. "You don't sound like a dying cat anymore."

"I do believe you're mistaking me with your singing."

"What?" Inuyasha pretended to be shocked. "Are you tone deaf? _Oh how I find, everything screams your name," _Inuyasha started singing._ "It reminds me of the places and times we shared. Couldn't lived locked in these memories; now I'm chained to my thoughts again_. See, that right there is _talent._"

"It sounded like somebody dropped a porcupine down your throat," I laughed, opening up the bag of chips and taking a handful. "I think you might be delusional."

"That song was just out of my range," Inuyasha waved off, smiling out the window as he kept on driving. "See you're wearing my shirt."

"Because I love you," I quoted the quote on the back of my shirt, batting my eyes.

"Good to know the feeling's mutual."

We drove for about an hour and a half just singing and talking and emptying out Inuyasha's bag of chips until we found a clearing that looked like a nice spot to park and Inuyasha stopped the car. I got out of the car with the blanket and chips while Inuyasha slid another CD in and rolled down the windows so we could still hear the music.

_"So if you have a minute why don't we go, talk about it somewhere only we know_." I grabbed Inuyasha's hand and pulled him along to the middle of the grassy area as I sang softly. "_This could be the end of everything, so why don't we go somewhere only we know_."

"We should make a playlist for all the songs we end up listening to when we go on these late night adventures," Inuyasha said as he took the blanket from my hand and laid it out on the ground. He sat down and pulled me down into his lap. "It will be an ongoing list of songs."

"Because we'll never stop taking these late night trips," I whispered, looking down at Inuyasha's hand that rested on my stomach. I took it in my own hand and turned it so it was palm up and then dug into Inuyasha's pockets to see if he had a pen.

"What are you doing?" Inuyasha asked, squirming around as my hand slid into his pockets.

"I'm starting our playlist," I answered, coming up with a pen. I made myself comfortable in his lap again and started writing on his palm. _Somewhere Only We Know—Keane. _"Number one on the playlist."

"Do you want to get some paper out of the car?"

"Nah," I said shaking my head. "If I write the songs all over you there's no way you can forget the songs by losing a sheet a paper."

"But it'll come off when I wash."

"So you're going to have to make the playlist before you wash." I added _Retrace—Anberlin _under the first song. "What else did we listen to?"

Inuyasha took the pen from my hand and started writing on my leg and wrote _Valentine's Day—Linkin Park. _Then _Bulletproof Heart_ started playing from his car, so he wrote that down too.

"You can't write on me!" I protested. "We're supposed to write all the songs so you can go home and make the playlist. How are you supposed to make an accurate playlist when half the songs are on me?"

"I guess that just means I'm going to have to call you."

"You don't need an excuse to call me," I told him as he scribbled another song down on my thigh. I started humming a random song as Inuyasha moved me out of his lap and propped my leg up on his lap so he could continue tattooing me. "Hey! Don't write that one down. I don't want to have _American Idiot _written on my leg."

"We listened to it in the car so it has to go down somewhere," Inuyasha smirked. "What song were you just humming?"

"_Wild Horses_ by Natasha Bedingfield," I said and he added it to his ongoing list on my leg. I took the pen from his hand and removed my leg from his lap. I pulled his arm to me, the pen poised, "What's another song?"

"_Somebody Told_ _Me_ by the Killers." I wrote it down on his forearm. "_And I Dare You to Move. And All The Right Moves. And Leave Out All the Rest." _I wrote down a few songs on his other arm, just to make it look somewhat symmetrical. I added _Semi-Charmed Life—Third Eye Blind _and then _Everybody's Fool—Evanescence._

"We didn't listen to any Evanescence," Inuyasha said as he watched me move his sleeve out of the way so I could continue writing.

"I know, but the title just seemed to fit you," I shrugged. Then I started singing, "_Perfect by nature, icons of self-indulgence. _See? Now I made it a legit song to add since I sang it."

"I think that's cheating."

"You can't make up rules when you're making a playlist." I pushed his chin up and wrote _It Ends Tonight—All American Rejects _on his neck before he managed to take the pen back.

"Just singing a song so you can write the title on me defeats the purpose of this playlist." Inuyasha wrote three songs down on my other leg, _The Only Hope for Me is You Alone, Party Poison, and Sing_, all by My Chemical Romance. Then he pushed me down on my back and lifted the edge of my shirt, adding _Kings and Queens—30 Seconds to Mars _just above my shorts.

"I do believe that is an invasion of privacy," I whispered, watching as he wrote another song down on my stomach. "We listened _to American Suitehearts_."

"And _She's My Wionna_," Inuyasha added, working his way higher up my torso, writing it just above my belly button.

"It's my turn for the pen." I sat up and took the pen from Inuyasha, pushing him down on his back and straddling his hips.

"Well aren't you frisky tonight?" Inuyasha questioned as I pushed his shirt up.

I blushed and punched him in the shoulder. "Shut up. We're making a playlist."

"Whatever you say." Inuyasha moved his hands to my hips and then traced one finger up and down my spine. I had to bite down on my lip to keep from sighing.

"No distractions," I warned him, but I didn't stop him when he continued his ministrations. I wrote down five songs across his abs and then started to sing _Your Song_ by Elton John so I could add it to the growing list. "_I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is, now you're in the world."_ I looked up to see Inuyasha staring at me and I smiled at him before rolling off of him and handing him the pen. "Your turn."

We carried on like that for what had to be an hour. My stomach was overpopulated with words and my back had a few songs written across it. _Are You Gonna Be my Girl—Jet _wrapped completely around my neck and my legs were covered in blue ink. I had mostly written on Inuyasha's chest, back, and his arms because I wasn't too keen about trying to write on his hairy legs. I was certain to put _My Heart—Paramore _right on his chest above his heart.

"It looks like I'm running out of room," Inuyasha mumbled as he examined every inch of my legs. He looked up at my face and moved the pen to my cheek. "Sing a song for me so I can write it down."

"_And all the roads we have to winding. And all the lights that lead us there are blinding. And there are many things that I would like to say too, but I don't know how_," I started singing the chorus of _Wonderwall_ as Inuyasha carefully wrote it on my cheek. "_Because maybe you're gonna be the one who saves me. And after all, you're my wonderwall._" Inuyasha finished writing and looked at me. "That's the song I'm going to sing tomorrow for the show. What did you think?"

"I think you're going to have a great performance tomorrow that I'm going to miss."

I smiled widely at Inuyasha. "I'll tell Bank to record it for you."

Inuyasha smiled and looked me in the eyes before looking at my other cheek. He glanced at me again before looking back at my cheek and warning me, "Don't laugh."

"Why would I—"

"_'Cause every time we touch, I get this feeling. Every time we kiss, I swear I can fly,_" Inuyasha started singing as he wrote on my face. He was singing the slow version that he knew I loved, but he refused to look me in the eyes as he sang. "_Can't you hear my heart beat fast, I want this to last, need you in my life_." He stopped singing and finished writing. When he looked up at me I was beaming at him. "Alright, I'm not singing to you ever again."

"Why not?" I laughed, smiling at his reddening face. "That was perfect."

"It sounded like a porcupine crawling down my throat," Inuyasha mumbled looking down at the blanket.

"No it didn't," I insisted, taking his face in my hands so he was looking at me. "I loved it. You sang _Cascada _for me."

Inuyasha shook his head. "I'm never singing to you again."

"You'll break that promise," I said as I took the pen back from Inuyasha. "This is the last song for tonight."

I started writing _My Love—Sia _on Inuyasha's right cheek, staring into his eyes as I sang. "_My love, leave yourself behind. Beat inside me, leave you blind. My love, you have found peace. You were searching for release_." I finished singing and smiled at into Inuyasha's captivating eyes. "All done."

Inuyasha leaned forward then and kissed me softly; he wrapped his hand around my neck and started playing with the hairs at the nape of my neck. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned into him, laying him down on his back as I hovered over him.

"You sure you just don't want to run away back home with me?" Inuyasha asked when we pulled apart, smirking up at me. "It's going to be really hard to go a whole week without this."

"As tempting as it sounds to run away with you, I can't." I rolled off of Inuyasha and cuddled into his side, one of his arms wrapping around my waist and pulling me closer to him. "I have some unfinished business here."

"You have some unfinished business with me," Inuyasha mumbled, nuzzling my neck. "But I guess I'll have to wait."

"Separation only makes the heart grow fonder."

"I really hope so."

We lied on the blanket for a long time after that, just looking up at the stars and listening to each other's breathing and the music playing from Inuyasha's car.

_If you stay I would even wait all night  
Or until my heart explodes  
How long until we find our way in the dark and out of harm  
You can runaway with me anytime you want_

~0~

"I really don't want to leave yet," I told Inuyasha as we sat in his car by the front gates of Talent.

"I don't want you to leave either, but it's two in the morning. I don't want you to get in _too _much trouble."

"I told you, I'm only in trouble if I get caught."

"You're going to get caught," Inuyasha promised. "I've got one of those feelings."

"All the more reason to _not_ leave this car." I turned my head to face Inuyasha, pouting. "I have to get out the car."

"Unfortunately, yes."

I sighed and stared out the windshield before finally unbuckling my seat belt. "My counselor really scares me. If I don't call you tomorrow it's because she killed me and threw me in the lake."

"You love your melodramatics," Inuyasha smirked at me and I wanted to buckle my seatbelt again and tell him to take me away with him.

"It's just who I am," I shrugged. "But I love you too."

Inuyasha smiled a barely noticeable, but content smile. "I love you, Kagome."

I smiled at him and then reached for the latch on my door to open it, but Inuyasha pulled on my arm and back into the car the second I got my first foot out.

"Inu—"

Inuyasha pulled me down onto his lips and tangled his hands in my hair, giving me another mind blowing kiss before I left him. I turned around, standing up on my knees in the passenger seat, cupping his face in my hands, retuned the kiss as best as I could before the demand for oxygen forced us apart.

"Just something to last you for the next week," Inuyasha smirked as he slipped his hands out of my hair.

"Mmhmm…" I was still trying to blink the floating hearts out of my vision. "I think you just put me in a daze."

Inuyasha laughed and kissed me one more time. "I'll talk to you later, Kagome."

"Right," I said nodding my head. "I'll call you with my side of the playlist."

"I'll have the CD burned for next time."

I smiled at Inuyasha again and reluctantly got out of the car and shut the door. Inuyasha drove about five miles an hour, looking back at me through the side view mirror until he faded from view.

Now I just have to wait another week.

_At least my Inuyasha battery was recharged, _I thought to myself as I headed through the entrance and down the path that led me towards the Crazy Frogs cabin. I don't know how I made it back to the cabin considering I was too busy replaying my evening in my head instead of paying attention to where I was directing my feet to go.

"Kagome Higurashi." I looked up to see Kiyoko walking off the front steps of the cabin. "You're late."

I see my excuse didn't work. "Yeah…"

Kiyoko flashed her flashlight at me and gave me a funny look when she saw all the writing that covered my body. She shook her head before saying, "We have zero tolerance for people who break the rules."

"I understand." At this point I was not up for a lecture. I wanted to just crawl in my bed so I could dream about Inuyasha.

"You have kitchen duty for the next week. You'll need to be up at six tomorrow to help with breakfast." Kiyoko tried to stifle a yawn uphold her strict persona but she failed "Now… now go to bed."

"Yes ma'am."

I might have showed some indignation about having to get up at such an ungodly hour, but I was too hopped up on Inuyasha to care.

**_-0-0-0-0-0-_**

**_So, I took a break from the usual camp drama to give you some much need Inuyasha and Kagome fluff and I hoped you like it. I am SUPER sorry about the ridiculously long delay. At first I had writer's block, but then I finally got over that and then school work just got hectic. This semester requires a lot more work than last semester especially since AP tests are around the corner so I'm getting drowned in psychology review. I have 170 terms to define by Monday and I haven't started them. But, I got this Friday off and I just _needed _to type. Thankfully the AP exams are early this year so after May 2nd I'm basically done with psychology. More time to update!_**

**_I have good news though. This ENTIRE story has been planned out. An 8 page, front and back outline, that I did when I was supposed to be studying for finals last semester, but I devoted my time to this story instead. There will be about 22 chapters total and I no longer have worry about being completely lost on what's going to happen next. Maybe updating won't take forever this time._**

**_Last thing: I had this chapter done April 1, 2011, but you're not getting get until now because a certain editor decided to give up all things Inuyasha for lent so that's the reason for the extra wait. _**

**_Please REVIEW!_**

**_~Kimiko888~_**

Giving InuYasha up for lent = hardest thing ever. Have you ever suffered a withdraw from a comic? I can now say that I have. Also, my apologies for the even longer wait! The week after Easter was unusually busy!

~hanmajoerin


	9. Confession 8: I Hate Kitchen Duty

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any songs**

**This was an extremely long chapter, but I found out a way to cut it into two so now you have two moderately long chapters. It only took forever, but it's finally here. Please enjoy**

**How did I find the song for this opening? I googled songs about hating your job and when I went to look up one of the songs I actually found this one and I was completely shocked by the music video—did **_**not **_**see that one coming—but the lyrics fit, so that's how I found this song. Google has all the answers.**

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_I hate my boss_

_I hate my coworkers_

_I hate my job_

_-JbDubs "I Hate My Job"_

**Confession 8: I hate kitchen duty**

Six o'clock in the morning is truly an ungodly hour— especially to have to wake up at. In the time it took me to walk from Kiyoko to my bed, I had somehow managed to actually set my alarm and now _The Circle of Life_ was waking me up before the sun even rose. Ridiculous.

I turned the alarm off before any anti-morning people (AKA Aimi) woke up and rolled over to the edge of my bed. Climbing down the ladder looked like too long of a journey to take at six in the morning. I think I stared at the floor for a full ten minutes before I found the strength to move down the ladder.

When I reached the bottom, I turned around to see Aimi staring at me with her sleepy eyes, not blinking.

"Are you sleeping with your eyes open?"

"You're really going to regret all those tattoos thirty or forty years from now," Aimi mumbled, finally blinking. "They're going to look bad on wrinkly skin."

"It's pen."

Aimi squinted. "Right. Well, that's not good either. Ink poisoning is the number one killer in Japan."

"I think you should go back to sleep because I'm pretty sure that's wrong."

"I wouldn't be up in the first place if _someone _hadn't set an alarm on their phone. The sun's not even up!" Aimi hissed.

"I got kitchen duty," I mumbled. "Kiyoko caught me coming in."

"I told her you were in the art cabin."

"That's not good." I turned around to see that Sango had somewhat joined the world of the living. She still looked half asleep. "I told her you were at the lake."

"I said you were at band practice," Rei added, waking up too.

Well, no _wonder _I got caught.

"Maybe you guys should have thought to get your stories right."

"Maybe _you _should have stayed on the fucking camp grounds," Aimi argued. "Really, a walk on the trails would have been equally as romantic as writing on yourselves. Probably better because you wouldn't be killing yourselves with _ink poisoning!"_

Sango's brows furrowed. "_What?_"

"She's tired." I grabbed my stuff for the shower and draped my clothes for the day over my arm before I picked my phone up, too. "Well, since you three failed to keep me out of trouble I have to get up this early for the rest of the week. Maybe next time you guys can get it right?"

"Oh," Sango started, sitting up in her bed, now fully awake, "don't you _dare _pin the blame on—"

"I must get going before I'm late for breakfast duty and I get in even more trouble," I cut Sango off and I hurried out of the cabin, fearing that any more of my input would potentially endanger my well being. "Bye!"

I was only one there when I made it down to the showers and I put my stuff in one of the cubbies provided near the entrance then grabbed my phone and called Inuyasha.

He picked up right before the phone had a chance to send me to voicemail. "_I love you Kagome, but I may kill you if you ever call me again this early in the morning."_

"What, no congratulations on making it to your cabin alive, I was so worried your counselor would kill you and throw you in the haunted lake?" I scoffed. "And I thought you were a nice and caring boyfriend."

"_Kagome, I just got home an hour ago and I had this great plan to sleep until three in the afternoon and you're currently ruining it."_

"Sorry," I apologized. Considering he did drive all the way up here just to see me, he deserved an apology because, this _is _an ungodly hour. "But, predictably, I did get caught last night and I'm on kitchen duty which requires me to get up at six."

"_So you called me to share your misery?"_

"Surprisingly, no. I have to take a shower which means I'm going to have to scrub all this ink off my skin so I need to tell you all the songs you wrote on me for the playlist."

"_Couldn't you have just written them down?" _

"No, I don't have the time." Inuyasha groaned. "Hey, you were the one who started writing on me so you'd have an excuse to call me. You should be more careful about what you wish for." There was silence on Inuyasha's line. "Do you want me to start reading them off now?"

"_I literally can't open my eyes right now. Just take pictures of yourself and send them to me."_

"…That sounds _so _wrong. Seriously Inuyasha, that is _disgusting. _I have way too much respect for myself to ever—"

"_Calm down, Ms. Self-Righteous_," Inuyasha cut me off. _"I didn't ask for you to send me naked photos, just take photos of where I wrote on you. I didn't write anywhere inappropriate."_

"Oh. Right. In my defense, you know I'm pretty stupid this early in the morning."

"_I do remember. But are we good now? Crisis averted?"_

"Yeah, we're good. I must thank God for giving me such a smart boyfriend." I think Inuyasha caught my sarcasm because he snorted. "I'll let you go back to sleep now."

"_Bye Kagome. I'll see you next week."_

"'Kay. Bye."

I hung up the phone and then went to the camera and bunched my pajama shirt up to my chest and looked at myself in the mirror. This is weird. Albeit, it's not at all a nude picture and it's not like Inuyasha is seeing my stomach for the first time considering he _did _write on it, but it still felt weird.

But I also don't have time to sit down and write everything that's on my skin down and I really want that playlist for our future road trips, so I pushed the awkwardness to the back of my mind and snapped my picture before turning around and snapping a picture of the few songs Inuyasha had scrawled across my back.

I was in the middle of trying to get the pant leg of my pajamas to go all the way up so I could get my entire leg done in one shot when my phone vibrated on the counter and I reached over to see who had sent me a text. It was Inuyasha.

_Inuyasha: Nice abs._

I rolled my eyes. Idiot.

_Me: I thought you were going to sleep._

_Inuyasha: the thought of getting all these revealing pics from you kept me up for just a bit longer._

_Me: Perv._

I finished taking pictures of all the songs that had been "tattooed" into my skin then hurried to strip and hop in the shower before I was late for kitchen duty; the cooks are just as punctual as Kiyoko and Ms. Fujimoto.

I was in the shower for what had to be twenty minutes, attempting to scrub the pen off my skin but it _wouldn't come off. _What the hell? It was _pen, _not permanent marker, but it still stuck to my skin like glue. After I scrubbed until my skin was raw and pink and saw that the blue ink-y remains were still there, I just gave up. There's nothing long pants and a long sleeved shirt can't hide so I'll just go back to the cabin and switch clothes.

I got out the shower in a rush, putting on the clothes I dragged with me quickly, and then I ran back to the cabin where I would change into clothes that hid my "tattoos". The run back to my cabin was a workout since I decided to shower by the lake so I came in breathing kind of loud.

"Could you breathe any louder?" Aimi groaned into her pillow as I opened up my trunk. "You sound like a stampeding herd of elephants."

"Sorry," I apologized, not stopping my search for jeans and a long sleeved shirt. If I even packed any—considering I was at _summer _camp, I doubted that I actually packed any fall weather clothes—they were most likely all the way at the bottom of my trunk if I did pack them.

"You're back kind of early." Aimi slowly turned her head to look down at me. "Did they let you off for good behavior?"

"No, I actually need to change. Yes!" I pulled out a pair of jeans and found my swim team shirt buried right beneath it. Aimi glared at me for my outburst and I gave her an apologetic smile. "I'm actually running late." I motioned to my skin. "The ink wouldn't come off."

"It seems like I was right about the ink poisoning."

"Not really." I pulled off my shirt and replaced it with my swim shirt and shimmied myself into my jeans. "I have to go, but I'll see you… later." It hadn't been confirmed exactly how long my kitchen duty would last considering the kitchen does cook _all day. _Oh god, what if I'm there the _entire day?_

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Aimi was already nestling back into her covers, preparing to go back to sleep. Lucky bum. "Just don't be too late and get yourself extended kitchen duty for bad behavior."

"Don't jinx me."

~0~

The kitchen was already alive and bustling when I finally walked through the swinging doors. After a man pushing a large cart filled with trays rushed past me and almost ran over my foot, I decided it would be best to stand to the side and wait for somebody to tell me what to do. My feet are too precious to be ruined by a giant cart.

The kitchen was all silver and white with stainless steel appliances everywhere. In the middle of the room there were four large stoves clustered together to form a square and a large oven fan hanging over all four of them. There was a long table beside the stoves that was covered in ingredients and cooking materials. The cooks were all flipping pancakes or French toast or scrambling eggs or frying sausages. One woman was stirring a big pot of what I think was grits, stepping back every time it popped.

"You there!" I turned around at the sound of a woman with a deep voice calling my name. "Are you Kagome?"

"Yes ma'am."

"You're late." The woman walked closer to me so she didn't have to shout over the all the noise to be heard. She had black hair that was pulled back into a short ponytail and wore the fancy, poofy chef hat so I assumed she was the head chef. She looked down at the watch fastened around her wrist. "I was expecting you twenty minutes ago."

"Well, I had to go to the showers by the lake because they have hot water so that's a pretty long walk from my cabin, and then I had a really hard time scrubbing all the writing off me from last night, which is why I'm wearing jeans and long sleeves right now, and even before that I had to—"

"When people are late they make up for it by doing work," the lady cut me off, "not by talking. There are no excuses for tardiness."

Since when was this school? "Sorry."

"Apologize later." The woman turned and started walking away briskly and I hurried to follow her. "We're running behind this morning and I need you to get right to work on rolling the silverware for the campers or else they're going to be eating with their hands." We walked past a small room with a large sink and a hose where two men were washing off trays and throwing dishes into either one of the three dishwashers located in the back of the room and then turned into a small office off the right.

"Alright, Akira can show you how to roll the silverware," the woman said, pointing to another camper who sat at a table with her back to us. "When you're done with that just find me and I'll tell you what to do next." The woman was halfway out the door when she turned around again, having remembered something. "I'm Chef Cook, by the way."

"Chef Cook?" I grinned. "So cooking was pretty much in your blood then?"

Cook's face was flat. "Get to work."

"Tough crowd," I mumbled to myself as Cook hurried out the door. _Or maybe my jokes suck as much as Inuyasha says they do._

I walked over to the table where the girl, Akira, sat, rolling silverware at lightning speed, oblivious to my presence. "Uh… Hi?"

"There's a bin for spoons, forks, and knives," Akira said, not looking up from what she was doing or even bothering to greet me. She finished rolling up silverware in a napkin and then pointed to the three green bins in front of her. "Do _not _mix silverware because it will only slow us down. You fold silverware like this." She grabbed a paper napkin from the stack beside her and turned it so it was shaped like a diamond. "Knife, fork, spoon," she said, placing each utensil on top of each other in the middle of the napkin. "Then you fold up the bottom of the napkin to cover the bottom part of the handles and then you fold the napkin in half to cover all the silverware and then," she turned the napkin to the side and rolled it into a neat covering around the silverware, "you roll." She put her silverware in a bin of already wrapped silverware. "Just like pigs-in-a-blanket."

"I guess that's easy enough." Akira was already reaching for more silverware as I pulled out the chair beside her, moving three times faster than she was when she showed me how to fold it. "Do we really have to move that fast though?"

"The trick is to finish before the guys bring in freshly cleaned silverware because then you'll just be stuck doing this shit all day." I grabbed a napkin from the stack that was beside my working area. "And I'm already behind since you were late so I've been pulling your weight and I'll be damned if I spend all morning rolling fucking silverware because of you."

"Okay…" I grabbed some silverware and started rolling. "So, what are you in for?"

"I'm a second year dance scout," Akira answered easily. "Contemporary, jazz, tap, and a little hip hop."

"Oh, that's good and all, but I meant what you're in _kitchen duty _for." I pushed my finished set over to my right and grabbed another napkin. "I got caught breaking curfew. You?"

Akira turned to glare at me. "That's hardly any of your business."

"Okay…" I get the feeling Akira doesn't like me very much, but I'm too bored to just sit and roll silverware in complete silence. "Are you performing tonight?"

"Yeah. While music scouts are supposed to do covers, dance scouts are supposed to do tributes to famous performers so I'm going to re-do this Michael Jackson routine with my friend and…"

I never realized how boring _talking _about dancing could be. Watching it was usually entertaining, but listening to Akira talk, using all the fancy names for stuff I just called twirls, only gave me a headache. Of course, I didn't tell her that because she'd probably give me the evil eye, but dance talk was boring talk. I wonder if I sound like this when I talked about art… Probably.

"My friends dance," I offered after Akira finished her endless (greatly detailed) dance routine explanation. "They're not here because they didn't try out, but they probably could have made it. They're really good."

"Everybody thinks they're really good," Akira shrugged. Jerk. "What styles do they do?"

"Oh, styles. Um…" I know Rin and Ayame have told me plenty of times what kind of dance they do, but I am well known for being the type of person to forget things like that. Or not listen… "Oh! My friend Ayame does ballet." Or did ballet. I distinctly remember going to one of her recitals back in middle school.

"Really?" Akira looked at me for the first time with mild interest.

"Oh yeah," I waved off. This was the first time she wasn't looking at me in mild annoyance; I wouldn't ruin it by telling her that Ayame may no longer be doing ballet. "She wore her hair in a bun for a month when she was really intense about it."

"Wow. Kudos to her. I know a lot of ignorant people think that ballet is just tiptoeing around a stage, but it's actually a lot of work. It's complete hell on your feet." Akira shook her head as she started rolling another set of silverware. "I did that when I was younger and point is absolute _hell._ I couldn't take putting all my weight on just two toes so I quit. The blisters were pretty ugly, too."

"Yeah… tough stuff," What the hell is point? "I'm actually performing tonight, too." Akira raised her brow at me, a silent question. "Singing," I explained. "I actually got here on a scholarship for art, but I'm pretty good at singing too, so I signed up to perform tonight."

"Oh." All interest left Akira's eyes. "Well, good luck with that." And she went back to just rolling silverware in silence.

I'm beginning to think that Akira is a very rude person. Just because she could care less about me and my singing didn't mean she had to just completely blow me off. Really, I am two more rude comments away from writing her down on the _Reasons Why I Hate Talent_ list.

"Speed up!" Akira snapped at me, gesturing to the silverware I was rolling. "Do you do everything this slow? _God."_

Now we're down to one.

~0~

Kitchen duty, I've learned, is really something that should be avoided at all costs. It _sucks. _I was fine with stocking the coolers with drinks, and wiping down tables and even rolling silverware, but this? _This _is humiliating.

"What are you just staring at it for?" Cook snapped at me (I called her Chef once and she glared at me so Cook seemed to be the more respectful name to call her. Actually, she preferred Chef Cook, but that's a bit of a mouthful). "Put it on and start loading bacon into the ovens over there."

I shrunk away from the offensive object in her hand. "Do I really _have _to? I mean, I'm not really cooking or anything so it's not _really _all that necessary."

"Do you like hair in your bacon?" I shook my head. "So put the hairnet on." Cook threw it at me before I could even start my second argument and headed across the kitchen to order more people around.

I looked down at the hairnet in my hands and frowned. This sucks. If Sango or Bank or Aimisee me in this they'll laugh about it for the rest of their lives. Nobody looks good in a hairnet and wearing one is just giving people the opportunity to laugh at you (no offense to the lunch ladies). Good God, what if _Yuuki _sees me in this?

I had half the mind to toss the black netted mess in the trash and just load the bacon without it on, but I caught Cook glaring at me from across the kitchen and I hurried to shove my hair into the hairnet.

"Looking good there," Akira smirked as she walked past me, carrying a box of apples to put in the fruit baskets towards the beginning of the serving line. _She_ didn't have to wear a hairnet for that. Akira also made it on the list an hour ago, but now she's ten comments away from reaching Yuuki's level (currently, Akira is still lingering at Kikyo version 1.0).

I went to the box of bacon I had fetched from the freezer and cut through the tape and inside the box, sheets of bacon were stacked one on top of the other. I began loading sheets of bacon onto the plastic trays that were stacked up underneath the table I was working at before I carried them over to large ovens that looked more like refrigerators with multiple slots for my trays of bacon.

"It's bacon, bacon, _bacon!" _I said to myself, mimicking a commercial for dog food I saw once as I carried trays from the table to the ovens. I've learned that I'm the type of person who actually talks to themselves to stay entertained. "I love bacon, I love you. I love bacon, I love you. I love—"

"You're quite a bacon fan I take it then."

"Shit!" I was so caught off guard by the extra voice in my working area that I jumped two feet in the air and my tray of bacon clattered to the floor. Cook is going to kill me—_Wasting the bacon like that, just because you're startled? What a nuisance!_—Unless I just pick it up and put them back on the tray before she looks over here. And I'll tell all my friends to avoid the bacon today since I'm a massive screw up so they don't consume any of the germs that are contaminating this floor.

"No, you definitely shouldn't put the bacon back on the tray." I whipped my head around to look at the intruder, the whole reason I was in this mess, and found Ichiro, the "devil's spawn", standing behind me, smirking. "You were staring at the bacon _really _hard and I figured you were thinking about feeding the entire camp dirty food."

"Well, I wasn't," I snapped. He looked surprised at my hostility and I guess that was to be expected considering this was the first time we've met. That and I had no legit reason to resent him that he knew of, anyway; but I did have a reason to resent him: Rei. He likes Rei when Bank likes Rei and that was an issue.

"Touchy one, are we?"

I glared at him briefly, but then cleared my throat. "Can I help you with something?"

"Not really," Ichiro shrugged, and I had to admit he really _did _look good. God, it sucks when the best looking guy here turns out to be a devil underneath. According to Aimi, that is. "I was just checking out the riff raff that was working the kitchen this week." He winked at me. "Sexy hairnet, by the way."

"What do you want?" I demanded, only slightly turned off by his flirting. Granted, it was a bit weird and out of the blue, but at least I know Ichiro is just flirting because he's a flirt and he has nothing better to do but use his good looks to reel girls in—not that I'm getting reeled in, mind you. Ichiro is nowhere _near _as creepy as Hojo though.

Hojo. Damnit. I need to delete my number from his phone… Note to self: hunt Hojo down and steal his phone and delete my number. Then pray to anyone that he didn't memorize it. Oh God, what if he memorized my number! That would be freaking awful.

"I need to know where Chef Cook is, actually," Ichiro said, his flirtatious grin being replaced with a serious look. "I have a favor to ask of her."

"What is it?" I asked. I didn't mean to pry or get all in his business, but the only people I have to talk to in here are Cook and Akira (I seemed to be completely invisible to the rest of the kitchen staff) and neither seemed too fond of me at the moment and I was tired of talking to myself to stay entertained; Ichiro, the devil's spawn he may be, could make for a few minutes of good company. "Not that I'm being nosy."

"It's for a friend," Ichiro shrugged. "So, Cook?"

"Is it for Rei?" If Ichiro was getting the chef to cook something special for Rei, Bank was _really _going to have to step up his game. One flower wasn't going to do the trick if he's trying to compete with Adonis over here.

"Yeah." Shit. "How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," I shrugged. "So, why are you asking Cook to—"

"Now I remember," Ichiro said snapping his fingers. "You're one of Rei's new friends. You're in her cabin, right? I've seen you walking with her a couple of times."

"Yeah, yeah," I waved off, wanting to get back to the important stuff. "So this thing you're having Cook make; what exactly is it for?"

"You're also friends with that guy who really needs a haircut," Ichiro continued, ignoring my very _important _question. If some special day for Rei was coming up soon, I would need to know so Bank could get her something too. "You know, the one with the braid."

"Yeah, he's my friend," I replied, keeping my answer short. And Bank doesn't really need a haircut because without his braid, I would have no leash to stop him when I needed to get his attention. "Getting back to Rei, what—"

"Can you do me a favor and tell him to stay away from Rei?" Ichiro looked at me like this was a completely normal and rational thing to ask of someone. "She's been with enough dickheads and I don't want him added to the list."

For a second I was completely caught off guard. He doesn't even _know _Bank and he has absolutely no right to call him a dickhead. Bank is the antithesis of a dickhead! 95 percent of the time.

"Really, or do you not want any competition over Rei?" I smirked at the way Ichiro's brows shot up on his forehead. "Hit the nail on the head, didn't I?"

"You're pretty perceptive."

"Well, it's about _time _somebody noticed it."

A slow grin grew across Ichiro's face. "I actually like you. What's your name?"

"Fuwa Miki," I lied. I was Bank's matchmaker and I felt like my name should be left confidential for the time being. I'm not too sure about the significance of this, but I feel like a matchmaker is equivalent to a detective, and detectives use aliases all the time.

"Really?" Ichiro already seemed to be calling my bluff. "You don't look like much of a Miki."

"I get that all the time, but I can't help what my parents named me," I shrugged. "And there aren't even any really good nicknames for Miki either. I mean, what else could they call me? Mi, Ki, Mik? Really, nothing sounds too good, so I'm stuck with Miki. Not that I hate the name my parents gave me or anything it's just that—"

"Higurashi!"

"—it kind of sucks when people are going around saying I don't look like my name. Insulting even."

"Higurashi!"

"I mean, who wants to be told you don't look like your name? It's like saying I was a mistake. Well, not a mistake really, but—"

"Higurashi Kagome, unless you have magically gone deaf in the last five minutes turn around when I'm talking to you or I _will _assign you an extra week of kitchen duty!"

"Yes ma'am?" I asked, turning around and breaking character, putting on the most innocent look I could muster. Cook did not look like someone who took pity on the innocent at the moment.

I was hoping that if I didn't answer to my name Ichiro would believe I was actually Fuwa Miki who was unfortunate enough to be told by everyone she met that she didn't look like her name and she was slowly beginning to feel discouraged and resent her parents for giving her such an unfitting name. Really, I was just getting the story started. But, Cook blew that plan because there's no way in hell I'm spending an extra week walking around with this hairnet on.

"When you make a mess, _clean it up." _She pointed at the bacon that was still spread all over the floor. "Breakfast is in an hour and we need to get stuff done and you spending ten minutes just staring at a mess on a floor is a complete and utter waste of time." Cook threw a towel from the front of her apron at me and I caught it before it hit me in the face. "Throw the bacon in the trash, wipe up anything wet that might be left behind so no one slips, and then _get back to work."_

"Yes ma'am." Cook stared at me wide-eyed. "Oh, you meant _now."_

"For the love of…" Cook trailed off, mumbling something under her breath as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "_Now, _Higurashi!"

In my defense, I thought she was going to leave first.

I lowered myself to my knees and started picking up the bacon, one thick slice at a time. Stupid Ichiro. This is all _his _fault. If he hadn't snuck in like a frickin' ghost and startled me, I wouldn't have—

"Ichiro!" I was so thrown off by the cheeriness in Cook's voice that I actually had to look up to make sure it wasn't a figment of my imagination. So it _can _smile. "What brings you here?"

"Nothing much," Ichiro shrugged. "I just have a small favor to ask for."

"Anything for you," Cook assured him. "What is it?"

I stopped moving and listened in extra carefully to their conversation. Finally I would know what special day was coming up for Rei and then I could get Bank to plan accordingly.

"Actually, it's supposed to be a surprise, so can we talk in your office for a second?"

"Oh yeah, sure. Come on, it's on the other side of the kitchen now. They moved it since the last time you were on kitchen duty with me."

Ichiro smirked at me as he followed Cook out of the room, "See you around, Miki."

Jerk.

I was sent back to the office to roll silverware after I finished cleaning up and loading the bacon into the refrigerator-style oven. And when I heard Cook yelling around the kitchen for people to work on the serving line, I expertly hid behind the file cabinet located in the corner of the office because there was no way this hairnet would go public; especially if it's on_ my_ head. This head gear is strictly for behind the swinging doors.

I was listening to campers file in the mess hall for breakfast and yearning to join my friends when Cook found me.

"Higurashi—"

"I really don't think I should work the serving line," I said before she had the chance to tell me what she wanted me to do. I faked a cough. "I think I caught a cold."

Cook raised a brow at me. "In the middle of summer?"

"Technically, it's more of the _beginning _of summer and you can catch a cold anytime, it's just more common to catch them in the winter." Cook didn't look very convinced so I faked another cough. "I just really don't want to cough on the food and spread my germs."

Cook rolled her eyes at me. "Well, it's a good thing the trash won't be affected by your so-called germs."

"Trash?"

"Yes, _trash. _I need you to take all the trash bags out of the trash cans and put them in the dumpster. It's right outside the back entrance to the kitchen." Cook was already on her way out the door. "And make sure you replace the trash bags in all the cans before you take the trash outside."

"Where are the—"

"Inside the cabinet over there," Cook said, actually pointing to a wall as she walked out the door, but I could just look through all of the cabinets until I found the trash bags. "And don't take all day!"

"Yes ma'am." Intimidating people like Cook really bring out my manners.

I finished rolling the set of silverware I was working on and then searched for the garbage bags before heading out to the kitchen.

Gathering all the trash bags took longer than I planned. The trashcans were those really big ones, like the ones in the school cafeteria, and that meant they held more trash and more trash made for a heavier load which does not bode well for me, a girl who is seriously lacking in the muscle strength department. I wrestled with trying to lift each bag out of its container for about five minutes each and I was out of breath by the time I did get it out. I really need to work out more.

"Sorry," I apologized when I knocked a trashcan over while trying to drag its bag out and the entire kitchen staff glared at me. "I really need to hit the gym when I get back home." I gave them all a sheepish grin when I finally got the bag out and lifted my arms pathetically. "Can't do a thing with these weak things." They all just sighed and returned to their work. You know, some people take their jobs _too _seriously.

I removed and replaced all the trash bags so the kitchen staff could keep throwing away whatever without hesitation and then got to work on dragging them all out the door to the dumpster, one at a time. The one upside I found to garbage duty (getting outside for some fresh air) was quickly ruined when the fact that I was going to dump trash in a dumpster hit home—I almost gagged at the smell.

"Aimi was right again," I grumbled to myself as I hoisted a garbage bag over the edge of the dumpster and let it fall in. "Kitchen duty is horrible."

That's when I felt it. The chill that ran up my spine and made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. Those are my Hojo senses tingling and that means he's near which means I needed to get the hell out of—

"I guess you should listen to your friend more often then."

I was about to make a mad dash for the line of trees close to the mess hall and hide behind one of them until I could confirm that the coast was clear, but it was already too late. I need to get better Hojo senses so I could sense him then have enough time to actually _hide._

"Hey, Hojo," I greeted, slowly turning around to see him sitting on the steps that lead back into the kitchen. Damn, that was my only way to escape and he _blocked it_. "What brings you here?" To the dumpster. Who hangs around a_ dumpster?_

"Oh, I was just going for a walk."

"By the dumpster?"

"Actually, I had finished breakfast early and I was walking through the trees over there and I saw you coming out of the kitchen and when you went back in, I just waited around the corner until you came back out." Hojo smiled at me. "I wanted to surprise you."

"I'm surprised." But, mostly creeped out. "Well, I need to _go, _so…"

"What are you in kitchen duty for?" Hojo asked, not catching on to the hint that I didn't want to talk; maybe he just ignored it. So far, Hojo seemed more obliviously stupid, so I was leaning more towards the former.

"I just missed curfew by a few hours," I shrugged. "I actually think my counselor overreacted, but whatever. Despite what I think, I'm still here."

"Mmhmm." Hojo looked at me intently and I felt my skin crawl. "Were you with your boyfriend?"

"Yeah…" Why am I even answering his questions?

"He doesn't seem like a good influence," Hojo said, leaning back against the steps. "If he's getting you in trouble and all, I mean"

"And since when are you my father?" I raised my brow at Hojo and he smirked at me. Oh no, this is like flirting_. _My gag reflexes are starting to act up. "You know, I really have to go because Cook will have my head and Akira will hate me even—"

"Akira?" Hojo cut me off, taking a sudden interest in my new coworker who seemed to have little interest in anyone but herself. "She's working in the kitchen too? What's she in for?"

"I don't know, she's not very fond of sharing. Charming girl, really." I looked at Hojo suspiciously. "Do you know her?"

"We're… old friends." Hojo stood up from the step he was sitting on and smiled at me and I tried not to grimace as he took a step towards me and placed a hand on my arm. "I'll see you around. You're performing tonight right?"

"Yeah." I took a step away from Hojo and placed my foot on the first step. "How'd you know that?"

Hojo winked at me. "I know _everything_ about you."

… That's not comforting at all.

I forced myself to smile at Hojo, but I'm pretty sure it came off looking uncertain and shaky. "Bye, Hojo."

I hurried up the last few steps to the kitchen and went inside, slamming the door behind me. I peeked out the window in the door to see if Hojo had left. There were two more bags of trash to dump in the dumpster, but I refused to go out until I knew for sure he—

I FORGOT TO DELETE MY NUMBER! No… And he was _right there. _Stupid Kagome, stupid. Stupid, stupid, stu—

"Fraternizing on the job?"

"God!" My head jerked back in surprise and I turned around to see Akira leaning against one of the sinks, staring out the window that overlooked the area I was just standing in with Hojo. "Does nobody announce when they're in a room anymore?"

"Most people aren't clueless to other people's presence like you are." Akira turned away from the window to look at me. "Take the trash out already. It's starting to stink."

"In a moment," I promised, glancing back out the window again for any traces of Hojo. "I'm waiting for someone to leave first."

"Playing hard to get?"

"No, playing I-have-a-boyfriend-and-I'm-not-interested." I turned back to face Akira. "Are we having an actual two-sided conversation?"

Akira rolled her eyes and picked up the crate of small milk cartons that rested by her feet. "Take out the trash."

"I'll get to it. Hey," Akira actually stopped and waited for me to continue. "Do you know Hojo? He said you guys were friends."

Akira glared at me. "That's none of your business, but if you must know, Hojo is an asshole." Akira started for the door that lead back into the main kitchen area. "He's the worst."

I watched Akira as she left. So it seemed like Hojo _is_ more than just a creepy stalker. It looks like Detective Kagome is going to have to do some investigating in—

"_Higurashi!"_ I turned around to find Cook looking at the other two garbage bags in horror. At least she always made herself known when she entered a room. "I told you to take the trash out fifteen minutes ago!"

"I know, but—"

"Take the trash out," Cook ordered through gritted teeth. She looked very scary. "_Now."_

"Yes ma'am."

_**-0-0-0-0-**_

_**So, I really have to give thanks to the awful time I spent volunteering in food services the first year I volunteered at the hospital for all the jobs Kagome can do while on kitchen duty. Thank you food services, but I will never return to that awful kitchen because I've learned how much better working in places like the hospital gift shop truly is. And this year I'm working in the emergency center at the front desk and they have coloring books. Don't forget to review! And I already wrote the next chapter so that **_**should **_**be coming around soon. And I think the blame can be split 50/50, actually.**_

_**~Kimiko888~**_

**We're baaacccccckkkkkkkkkk! And we two are ever so sorry about our… really long disappearance. While 70% of the blame goes to Kimiko for always being a lazy ass and never typing anything, 30% of the blame goes to me for acquiring a life and actually doing my school work and not knowing how to balance editing in with the rest. I know, the horror; anyway, school's done, my summer camp is finished and my first week of summer has been (surprisingly) productive. Look forward to another chapter of Confessions because it's right around the corner.**

**~hanmajoerin**

**P.S-Check us out on Tumblr (hanmajoerin or kimiko888)! **


	10. Confession 9: I Still Get Stage Fright

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any songs**

**Songs: Not With You… Tegan and Sara**

** Almost Lover… A Fine Frenzy**

**This chapter could have been a lot longer if I wanted to include all the performances, but I was too lazy to write them and they were really unnecessary so I kept it down to two songs. But to think going back to Disney Channel stars would be how I'd find the song for the opening that would fit the ending to this chapter perfectly. It's amazing. Alright, please enjoy!**

_**Confessions of a Band Camp Geek**_

_What did I do to deserve this?  
Tell me the truth and don't lie  
You're pretty good at that but, no not this time  
You walk around like you run the world,  
Running your mouth, and talking about me now,  
They think that you're the perfect girl,  
They're gonna see everything so get back_

_-Demi Lovato "Back Around"_

**Confession #9: I'm still prone to stage fright**

"Bank, we have a serious problem!"

"Have you ever considered entering a room without causing a scene? Here." Bank tossed me the wires that were once in his hand. "I need to set up my drums so finish hooking everything up."

"You don't want to hear about my serious problem?" I asked, closing the cabin door behind me, but closing the door didn't do much to block out the music coming from the other surrounding cabins. This being the afternoon before the performance, everyone either reserved a cabin or practiced somewhere outside. I passed about five different dance routines on my way here.

"Knowing you and how you usually blow everything out of proportion, I highly doubt it's all that serious." Bank pulled his kick drum pedal in front of his bass drum and started to clamp it on. "Where the hell have you been all day? I wanted to go over the top three songs we have to choose from, but you weren't in Songwriting this morning."

"Sango didn't tell you?"

"Oh yeah," Sango hit herself in the head. "It completely slipped my mind because I was actually doing what we're _supposed _to do in Songwriting. I wrote a song and it's actually pretty good if I do say so myself. Well, the music is. I'm not really a lyrics person."

"And breakfast?"

"We were late so we spent most of the time shoveling food into our mouths."

"Lunch?"

"Oh, well Sho and Raiden were telling this _really _funny story about how they got locked out of Raiden's house once and—"

"I didn't even know Sho and Raiden lived in the same city…" All the things I missed this morning because of _stupid _kitchen duty!

"So you were gone _because?" _

"Yeah, Kagome," Jakotsu said as he continued tuning his guitar. "We really missed your morning antics of trying to get Bank to express his feeling for Rei. Without you there they just had a normal conversation."

"Well that's boring," I huffed. "I had kitchen duty," I explained, catching the look of impatience on Bank's face. "Kiyoko caught me coming in late and put me on kitchen duty for a whole week. And I have to stay in the kitchen until after lunch. It's _torture."_

Really, spending my whole morning getting yelled at by Cook and stared down with the evil eye by Akira was horrible. And Cook slapped my hand so hard when I tried to sneak a cookie in my mouth while I wrapped them in saran wrap— it hurt for a full thirty minutes. And to top it all off, the only person I had to talk to at breakfast and lunch was Akira. She can't stand listening to anything I say so I was forced to listen to her go on and on about herself while I nibbled on any scraps left over after the other campers got their food. I do not believe I deserve a full week of this hell just because I came in a _few _hours late.

"You were late last night?" Bank asked, looking confused.

"Yeah, you would know that if you hadn't magically disappeared to stalk Rei."

Bank stopped what he was doing to give me a look that clearly said he thought I was crazy. "Do you hear the stuff that comes out of your mouth sometimes? Really, _why _would I stalk Rei?"

"Because you _liiiike _her," Sho answered for me and I only had to nod my head in agreement.

Bank's face was flat. "We need to practice."

"Okay, okay, practice, sure, but first I have to tell you what happened when I was loading the bacon this morning."

"Hojo popped out of the oven and scared the hell out of you?" Bank guessed.

"No, he caught me by the dumpster." Bank paused to process my response before turning to share a disturbed look with Sango. "Yeah, it's not normal at all," I assured them, "but that's not what's really important. Ichi—"

"You should think about filing a restraining order," Bank told me with a serious stare. "This Hojo guy is a creep."

"You know what your problem is Kagome?" Jakotsu asked and I shook my head. "You're way too nice. It's pretty obvious that you don't like Hojo at all, but instead of telling him to leave you alone you let him stalk you and try to run away when he actually talks to you. It would do you a lot of good if you just say, 'Hey, I have a sexy boyfriend, I don't like you, leave me the hell alone.'" Jakotsu hit his imaginary STAPLES button. "That was easy."

"But that's mean. And it's not like he's _done _anything."

"It's called being _assertive_." Jakotsu sighed at my incompetency. "Really, Kagome, do yourself a favor and tell him to back off. You know, so he can't _do _anything in the future."

"Okay, Hojo is not the problem right now. Ich—"

"The problem is that the first performance of the summer starts in four hours and we don't even have a song to practice," Bank cut me off, standing up and moving to the front of all of us so he could properly give a lecture. "I hate to be the tyrant—"

"No you don't." Bank glared at Sango and she just shrugged her shoulders. "It's the truth."

"We need to get it together," Bank bluntly put it. "We need to figure out the song, spend the next few hours practicing, and blow the roof off this place."

"Stage doesn't have a roof," I mumbled and Bank threw his drumstick at me, but I ducked. "That could have hit me!"

"All our focus has to be on practice, okay?" He looked around to make sure we all understood and we all nodded our heads. "So, Kagome, you save all your news and dramatics until later. And you can stay here for a while, but you have to practice your own song, remember?" No, I had conveniently forgotten about that. "Are we clear now? Can we focus?"

I really wanted to tell Bank about Ichiro actually liking Rei and his unknown special plan for Rei's still- to-be-determined special day, but I figured that would only add on to his stress and then he might explode. For the sake of his sanity, I'll wait until after Nameless performs.

"Okay, fine," I huffed in agreement. "So, what song do you want to perform?"

Bank looked at me wide eyed. "You were supposed to be keeping track of our best songs!"

"And I _did." _I rolled my eyes at Bank's overreaction and pulled my phone out of my pocket. "I wrote them down in my phone somewhere. Relax."

"Yeah man," Sho agreed with me. "Kagome's got it all together."

"That's what I'm worried about," Bank sighed. He walked back over to his drums, picking up the drumstick he threw at me earlier on the way. "Let's just practice. I'll feel better once we know what we're doing and it sounds good."

"I worry about you, Bank," I told him. "You're way too stressed to only be seventeen."

"You're the cause of it." Bank smiled at me to show he was joking and then played a quick beat on his drums. "Alright, seriously though, let's practice."

We ended up spending the next half an hour arguing over which song to perform before finally agreeing on _I'm Not Okay (I Promise)_ by My Chemical Romance since it was, pretty much, the anthem of all Freaks. And then we spent another half an hour arguing over how we should change the song to better fit Sango's vocals (I wanted to slow it down some because I heard a really pretty version sung slower, but Bank said he wanted to hype up the crowd) and in the end we found a good middle ground that wouldn't strain Sango's voice or "put the audience to sleep", as Bank put it. I got to sit in for maybe an hour of practice before Bank kicked me out and ordered me to do my own practicing so I headed back to my cabin to get my guitar.

"Jeez _fucking_ Louise," Aimi hissed just as I made my way over to my bunk. Her hands were clamped over her ears. She and Rei were both sitting on their bunks, listening to the noise of everyone practicing around them. A few girls pushed the first two bunks back and made room to practice their dance routine, one of their iPods plugged into speakers and blasting music. "Is there no place I can go for some _peace _and _quiet!"_

"Outside?"

Aimi glared at me. "I'm a demon, Kagome; I hear _everything."_

"Oh."

"Yeah, _oh,_" Aimi huffed, and tried to press her hands further onto her ears as she continued talking to me. "I seriously hate Sunday afternoons, really. Everyone has to get up on stage to broadcast their amazing talent and the rest of us have to suffer from all the noise they make when practicing. I went to one of the art cabins so I could paint instead of sit here and let my ears bleed out, but a bunch of kids with tubas were practicing in there! I can't find peace _anywhere." _ Aimi took a deep breath before turning to look at me. "So, what brings you back here?"

"I needed to get my guitar to practice…" Aimi's entire face went blank. "I _do _need to practice though."

She fell back on the bed and turned her back to me, not saying another word.

"Don't worry about her," Rei assured me as I got on the ground to slide my guitar out from under the bed. "She's very overdramatic."

"So I've noticed." It seems I've met my match when it comes to melodramatics. "What about you?" I asked Rei, picking my guitar case up and turning to face her. She currently had her trunk opened up in front of her and a few different outfits laid out on her bed. "Don't you need to be practicing?"

"I practiced earlier today while I was in my piano class. Now I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to wear," Rei said, gesturing to the clothes in front of her. "I usually try to look my best when I'm on stage."

"I didn't think about that at all." Stupid, stupid Kagome. "I mean, I have some fancy dress to wear at the end of the summer art gallery, but besides that I packed nothing but shorts and t-shirts." I looked over the clothes on Rei's bed; she had some _nice _clothes.

"Don't worry about it," Rei waved off. "You can borrow some of my clothes. We look about the same size."

"You are a life saver, Rei, really."

"It's nothing. So, do you to wear a skirt, shorts, or… Kagome?" Rei waved her hand in front of my face to get my attention. "What's wrong? You kind of zoned out and you had this really depressed look on your face."

"I don't suppose you have any fancy pants and long sleeved shirts that go together."

"No…" Rei answered and I groaned. "It's summer, Kagome. We were dying of heat yesterday in our shorts and t-shirts. Why do you ask?"

I shoved up the sleeves of my shirt to show Rei the ink on my skin. "And it's all over my legs too. And my back and my stomach."

"The ink didn't come off in the shower?"

"No," I groaned, falling back on Sango's bed. I'll get to go up on stage dressed like a bum. Great. I feel like I should leave Inuyasha an angry voice mail about this, blaming him and saying it was all his fault. "Oh well," I sighed, getting back up and grabbing my guitar. "Now I have to practice extra hard to make sure my talent will make up for the fact that I look like a bum."

Rei shot me a sympathetic smile. "Good luck."

"Thanks." I spared a look at Aimi, who still had her back to me. "Hey Aimi, do you want to come down to the lake with me while I practice?" I continued to be given the silent treatment. "You could go swimming and dunk your head in the water to help drown out the noise."

"…Let me get my bathing suit."

~0~

"Ladies and gentlemen of Talent, I would like to welcome you all to this summer's first Sunday Performance!"

"Boo!" Aimi shouted amongst the cheers that followed Mr. Otsuka's announcement and Sango elbowed her in the ribs. "What, I can't share my opinion now?"

"If you didn't want to come you didn't have to, you know," I reminded Aimi as the crowd settled back down, allowing our camp director to continue speaking.

"Believe it or not, I can support my friends," Aimi mumbled crossing her arms. "I don't have to be happy about it though."

"We actually prefer happy supporters…"

Aimi stared at Sango with wide eyes and forced the edges of her mouth to curve upwards as much as they possibly could. "Is this happy enough for you?"

"You know what, just stay grumpy," Sango told her, patting Aimi on the shoulder. "You look extremely creepy when you smile."

"And to think I came to support you." Aimi sucked her teeth and stuck her nose in the air. "I have never been so insulted in my life!"

"Stop whining," Sango waved her off. "I know you're only here to watch Raiden perform anyways." Aimi's face turned red and Sango and I both laughed as Mr. Otsuka went on to explain how tonight's performance was going to work.

Because Talent is a camp stocked full of teenagers who want to be performers and who tended to perform on Sunday night, the camp devised a plan to have ten acts backstage at a time so things don't get hectic. If you aren't back stage, then you just sit in the crowd and enjoy the show. And, since the best acts are chosen by the audience's applause and it's too hard to compare singing to dancing since they're two completely different things, the night is divided into three different categories of performers: dancers, campers playing only instruments, and singers/bands. After each group, the audience votes for the best by applause and then we move on.

It was going to be a really long night.

_From liquor stores_

_To the train stop floors_

_Your filthy room, your drama blues_

_I am nothing, if I'm not with you_

_I'm always right, always wrong_

_Dressing bad is like loving you_

_There is nothing I haven't worn_

_Nothing I haven't said before_

We just started on the singers and my butt was numb from sitting in this seat for hours and I was starting to sweat because I was sitting in the hot summer heat wearing longer un-summery clothes to cover up all my "tattoos".

"Did you get some decent practicing in?" Bank asked as we waited for our turn to perform. "I think we're in the next wave to be called backstage."

"Yeah," I lied, concentrating on the girl singing on stage as an attempt to rid myself of the nervous energy coursing through me. In retrospect, taking Aimi to the lake with me was a mistake because I ended up joking around with her more than actually practicing. It was the reason why I was a ball of jittery nerves. "But do you think it's still too late to take my name off the list? I'm starting to get stage fright."

Bank turned in his seat and looked me in the eyes. "Don't flake on me right now, Kags. You're amazing and you should be _excited _to share your talent with everyone else. Okay?" I nodded my head. "Alright, now take some deep breaths. In, out. In, out." I followed Bank's instruction. "Good. Do I need to make you sing _Eye of the Tiger_ or do you think you're good to go now?"

"I'm fine," I assured him, sinking my teeth into my lip. I'd be fine as soon as the butterflies stopped flying around in my stomach.

"Alright, that was Yui singing _Not With You _by Tegan and Sara," Mr. Otsuka said into the mic and Yui took a bow. "Please, give her a round of applause for that wonderful performance!"

"She's in our cabin," Sango whispered to me as we all clapped as Yui left the stage. So _that's _why she looked so familiar. "She's actually pretty good."

"Yeah," I agreed, nodding. Would I be that good on stage? Ugh! I should have _practiced! _"Hey Bank, I change my mind. We should definitely sing—"

"Next up we have Rei who will be singing A Fine Frenzy's _Almost Lover_," Mr. Otsuka read off the note card in his hand before looking up to smile at us in the audience. "Please welcome Ms. Asahara to the stage!"

I gave up on getting Bank to sing _Eye of the Tiger_ with me to help build my confidence because he was too taken by Rei to even clap for her. She walked out wearing satin black shorts over a pair of black pinstripe tights, her feet sported a pair of black ankle boots that had a small heel. On top, she wore a black, three-quarter sleeve blazer over a white tank that said _Je t'aime, _with a heart in the middle of it, and she left her hair down to fall over her shoulders, wavy (she didn't bother to straighten it this morning.) And the fact that she was smiling and waving as she walked over to the piano that had been pushed out to the middle of the stage just amplified the fact that she was gorgeous.

I elbowed Sango in the ribs and pointed to the gawking Bankotsu next to me and we both laughed.

"Love struck, baby, love struck," I sang to Bank and he snapped out of his daze to roll his eyes at me.

"It's love _shack, _Kagome," he pointed out and I pursed my lips.

"Eh, well love struck fits the situation better because you couldn't stop _staring," _I teased, poking him in the side and he squirmed in his seat. "You want to _kiiissss _her."

"Kagome!" Bank's face was bright red as he pushed me off of him. "She's about to start."

I grinned at Bank's bashfulness, but kept my mouth shut as Rei positioned her fingers on the keys and her feet by the pedals and took a few calming breaths before finally starting to play.

_Your fingertips across my skin  
The palm trees swaying in the wind, images  
You sang me Spanish lullabies  
The sweetest sadness in your eyes, clever trick_

"I actually like this song," Aimi mumbled, which was actually a great compliment considering she has to be the head of the anti-music/dance scouts club. The majority of the evening was spent listening to her complain about how she "suffered through all that noisy practicing for _this _crap" (Except for when Yuuki performed; She was _way _too good to criticize so Aimi and I both sat in our seats and grumbled about how it sucked that evil people got all the talent—Yuuki got a freaking standing ovation). I was glad to see my new friend didn't hate _all_ music.

_Goodbye, my almost lover  
Goodbye, my hopeless dream  
I'm trying not to think about you  
Can't you just let me be?_

So long, my luckless romance  
My back is turned on you  
Should've known you'd bring me heartache  
Almost lovers always do

Rei played with her eyes closed most of the time, opening them only to double check the placement of her fingers and she moved with the music as she played, leaning in to the piano at all the right moments. I always wished I had learned to play the piano because I wanted to look like Rei did on stage at the moment. And Rei was a _really _good singer which made the performance even better.

I watched Bank during most of the song, finding great joy in the captivated gaze that dominated his face. It wasn't until Rei started the bridge when Bank actually frowned.

"What?" I asked him, confused as to why he was suddenly frowning.

"She's crying."

I whipped my face to the stage—tears really were falling down Rei's cheeks as she sang.

_I cannot go to the ocean  
I cannot try the streets at night  
I cannot wake up in the morning  
Without you on my mind_

So you're gone and I'm haunted  
And I bet you are just fine  
Did I make it that easy to walk  
Right in and out of my life?

I was momentarily jealous of the fact that Rei could cry on stage and still look ethereal while I looked like blubbering idiot, but that only lasted for a second because I tried to figure out why she was crying. Maybe it's—

"Her boyfriend," Sango whispered the answer in my ear and it all made so much more sense. Rei still loves He-who-will-not-be-named, but she can't be with him because she knows he's bad for her, but she just can't forget him. Why didn't I catch on to that immediately?

_So long, my luckless romance  
My back is turned on you  
Should've known you'd bring me heartache  
Almost lovers always do_

The last note lingered in the air and Rei stared down at the piano for a few more seconds before she got up and quickly bowed. As she stood up, she wiped the tear stains away from her face before giving the crowd a fleeting smile. She was already speed-walking off the stage by the time Mr. Otsuka made it there with his mike. In the wings, I could see Ichiro step out (he performed in the same group as Rei), opening his arms for Rei to run into.

Crap.

"So that serious problem of yours?" Bank asked and when I turned to look at him, he was still watching Ichiro hug Rei as he walked her behind the curtains. "It has to do with Ichiro, right?"

"Yeah… How'd you know?"

"You started to say his name twice but we kept cutting you off." Bank finally turned to face me. "What is it?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" Mr. Otsuka was already calling out the next ten performances that needed to head back stage and I heard both Nameless and myself being called and the rest of the band was already getting out of their seats. I didn't want to throw off Bank's concentration right before a performance.

"Yeah, Kagome, tell me."

I hesitated for only a second before I told him. "Ichiro showed up in the kitchen and asked Cook to make something special for some special day of Rei's that's coming up and then he talked to me because he recognized me as Rei's friend and he remembered that I hang out with you and he told me to tell you to stay away from Rei because he likes her."

"Huh." Bank ran his tongue over his top teeth. "That is a serious problem."

~0~

On our way to the stage, we passed Rei and Ichiro on their way back to their seats. Rei's eyes were red and puffy just like they were the night I first found out about He-who-will-not-be-named.

"Hey, Rei," Bank called to her, stopping when we were about to pass each other, and I didn't miss the way Rei hurried to shake her hand out of Ichiro's when she smiled at Bank. "Your performance was really good."

"Really? I'm kind of embarrassed. I hate crying on stage."

"Well you looked good doing it." Bank's face immediately turned red when he processed what he said and Rei giggled. They're flirting; how cute. "I mean—"

"She looks good in everything she does," Ichiro said, winking at Rei as he brought himself back into the conversation. He looked at me and cracked a grin. "Hey, Miki."

"Miki?" Rei and Bank both turned to me with questioning stares and Ichiro laughed in response.

"It's a long story," I grumbled. Next time I pick an alias, it'll be much more believable and not just the name of the blonde girl in my cabin.

"I met her when she was about to feed the entire camp bacon she dropped on the floor."

Bank's face fell. "I ate bacon this morning…"

"I didn't do it!"

"Miki's actually a really funny girl," Ichiro smiled. "Really fond of bacon," he added, winking and I groaned. I do one stupid thing and this guy is hell bent on reminding me of it every time we come into contact with each other. Jerk.

"First Hojo and now this guy?" Bank shook his head at me and Rei laughed again. "You're on a mission to break Inuyasha's heart this summer, aren't you?"

"Shut up!"

"Come on, Rei," Ichiro said, taking Rei's upper arm and motioning down the pathway that led to the seats. "We need to get our seats before the other performances start."

"Okay." Rei turned back to us and smiled—more at Bank than me, but that's absolutely fine and dandy. "Good luck, guys. I'll be cheering for you!"

"Thanks!" I called back to her, since Bank seemed too dazed to respond.

Ichiro hooked his arm around the back of Rei's neck and started leading her away before she could say anything else, but the spell had already been cast on Bank.

"Love struck, baby, love struck!"

He snapped out of it and frowned. "Do you _ever _get the lyrics to songs right?"

"I get the lyrics to _my _songs right." Bank rolled his eyes, but still smiled. "You know, you and Rei should talk more often. You're always in a better mood after you do."

"Just come on already- before we're late for our own acts." Bank grabbed my guitar from me so he could carry it and grabbed my wrist and dragged me behind him. "We really don't need you wondering off because you see something shiny."

I hit his arm. "I'm not that easily distracted."

"_Suuure," _Bank sarcastically agreed and I hit him again and we both laughed.

When we finally made it backstage, Mr. Otsuka and a few other counselors were ordering people to get into order by performance times, but nobody listened (they were too busy doing vocal warm-ups and mouth exercises and reading over lyrics they printed out). Not far from the back of the line we found the rest of Nameless, all doing exercises to get rid of any nerves. Sho was shaking his hands out and bouncing on the balls of his feet; Jakotsu was sitting crossed legged on the floor, meditating; and Sango was pacing in circles while she sang the lyrics to herself, tapping out the tempo with her hands.

"Took you two long enough," Sho said when he saw us approaching, starting to do a few jumping jacks. "They're going to start with the first performer in, literally, a minute."

"Good thing we got here when we did then." Bank handed me my guitar and sat down on the floor next to Jakotsu doing absolutely nothing.

"What, you don't have a tradition to help you get rid of nerves?" Sho asked Bank as he moved into lunges.

"Nope," Bank told him, shaking his head. "The nerves make me play better. And I don't even have that many nerves to start out with because I am extremely confident in the fact that my band is amazing."

"He's a cocky fella," I admitted to Sho, patting the top of Bank's head.

"What about you?" Sho asked me. "Any tradition that helps you get rid of nerves?"

"I usually throw-up," I shrugged and Sho grimaced. "But that's only when I'm _really _nervous- I'm doing pretty good now. See?" I held my hands out in front of me "My hands aren't shaking, which is good. And my leg isn't bouncing up and down which is usually a tell-tale sign that I'm terrified to get up on stage."

"Higurashi Kagome!" A random counselor shouted, walking around backstage looking for who I had no other choice but to assume was me. "Higurashi Kagome!"

"Here!" I called out, stepping forward so the lady could see me better.

"Oh, thank _God!" _The woman grabbed me by my arm and began dragging me towards the front of the line. "I found her!"

As she dragged me further away from my friends, I shot them a panicked expression and they all furrowed their brows in confusion. Bank was the only one who followed me, though.

"I got her," the woman sighed in relief and placed me at the front of the line and Mr. Otsuka smiled graciously at her. "We're all good to go now."

No, we are _not _good to go. What the heck is going on!

My eyes grew wide and I glanced back at Bank anxiously, but he only shrugged his shoulder, just as clueless as me.

"Great. Where's my mic?" Someone handed Mr. Otsuka his microphone and a note card and he thanked them with a smile. "Wonderful." He patted me on the shoulder, wished me good luck, and then walked out to introduce the next act. Except there was nobody standing in front of me to be introduced which meant…

"Oh shit," I cursed, burying my hands into my hair. "Shit, shit, shit."

"Kagome?"

Did I say I was fine a few seconds ago, because that was the biggest lie of my life.

"Excuse me," I called out to the lady who had so rudely dragged me to the front of the line without any explanation. "Why exactly am I at the front of the line?"

"Because you're the first to perform," the woman answered in a duh-like tone, looking at me as if I was stupid to even ask and I gaped, shocked. This lady is out of her freaking mind if she thinks I'm getting up on stage _first_. "The first two acts spontaneously dropped out so you're on, but don't worry, Hon, you'll do fine. You didn't make it into Talent if you didn't have talent."

Which is why I didn't make it into Talent for singing; I'm here for _art! _What the hell was I thinking when I signed myself up!

I should just follow in suit and drop out like the first two acts…

"I can't do this, Bank," I turned to him as I heard Mr. Otsuka announce my name to the crowd. "I lied to you when I said I practiced today. I took Aimi down to the lake with me when I went to practice and we basically spent the whole time goofing off."

"Don't worry about it, Kags," Bank assured me. "You practiced with me the every other day this week and you know this song. It's going to be amazing."

"But what if this is the wrong song choice? What if I screw up the lyrics like I always do? What if I sing, 'You're going to be the one that _hates _me,instead of _saves _me?' I'd completely ruin the meaning of the song!"

"I highly doubt that will happen."

"What if I forget the chords? Crap." My eyes widened. "What if I forget _my name?"_

Bank's face was flat. "Now you're pushing it."

"But seriously, what if I completely mess up and get laughed off the stage?"

"It's the eye of the tiger, it's the—"

"That's not going to help!" I shouted at Bank, slapping his claw down. "I'm really freaking out!"

"And without further a due, Higurashi Kagome!"

_Shit._

"Here's the honest to god truth, Kagome," Bank started, taking me by the shoulders and looking me in the eyes. "I've been practicing on this song with you, you know all the chords, you have an amazing voice and you're going to do great. Okay?" I took a deep breath and expelled all the nerves in my stomach.

"Alright, I'm good now." Bank let out a relieved breath of air then smiled at me. "Can you record it for me?" I asked, handing Bank my phone. "I promised Inuyasha I'd send him a video of my performance."

"I gotcha'."

I smiled as I handed him my phone. "Thanks," I told him meaning it for more than just recording my performance. "You're the best."

Bank smirked at me. "I know."

"_Go!" _The woman who had dragged me to the front of the line ordered, shoving me out on stage. I waved back at my phone which Bank was already recording on and then headed to center stage where the mike was.

My tradition for getting rid of nerves: freak the hell out seconds before I'm supposed to go and let Bank talk me back down to sanity.

~0~

"And the winner for this Sunday's performance among the singers is…"

I waited impatiently with my arms crossed for the crowd to hurry up and decide who the best was. They had narrowed it down to five finalists and now we had to wait for the crowd to choose who they thought was the best out of those five by cheering when Mr. Otsuka held his hand over each person's head.

Although I actually did pretty well on my performance I didn't make into the top five, but I still had to wait on stage like a loser in the background. Nameless wasn't in the top five either, even though they did a really good job with their performance (I know we've put on better ones, though).

The finalists were Rei, Ichiro, Yuuki, some guy whose name I forgot but he danced while he sang and that was really good, and a girl who covered a song by some English chick I've never heard of before.

As much as I wanted Rei to win, I already knew who the crowd was giving it to.

"The audience has decided, and the winner is Saratoga Yuuki!" God, I was getting tired of hearing her name come after the words "and the winner is…"

"Life is such a bitch," Sango mumbled to me as we all headed down the back stairs of the stage after Yuuki did her annoying celebratory bow that we all had to stand around and watch. "Why do the people we hate have all the talent?"

"Because life's a bitch," Jakotsu answered as he squeezed in between us. "Hey, Kyouta!" A boy with brown hair and blonde streaks stopped and waved at Jakotsu, waiting for him to catch up. I think he was the guy playing Go Fish with Aimi and Jakotsu yesterday.

"Who's that?" I asked Bank as we continued on our way to the mess hall where they would be serving late night snacks after the performances finally ended.

"Some guy in our cabin." Bank scratched his head as he watched his brother walk away with one of his cabin mates. "I think he's going to be Jak's new boyfriend."

"Awww," Sango and I cooed at the same time and Sho and Bank both just rolled their eyes.

"Look at that," I sighed. "Little seeds of romance blossoming in the savanna."

"The savanna? We're in Japan, you know, not Africa." Sho's pointed out, but his tone made it sound like I was crazy.

"Lion King quote," Sango and Bank both answered at the same time.

"I'm so proud you two are finally starting to understand my obsession!" I hooked both my arms around their necks and pressed their cheeks against mine and they both groaned. "Oh, come on, it's not _that _bad."

"It's incredibly unhealthy," Sango said as she pulled away from me. "Really, Sho, you should see her trunk. She's got was has to be at least fifty—"

"Higurashi!"

Note to self: get better Yuuki senses so I have time to avoid her before she makes an appearance. These senses could possibly be more valuable than Hojo senses.

I watched Yuuki saunter up to us and a feeling of dread dawned over me. Why, God, _why?_

"Great show tonight, right?" She asked all of us in a sweet-like tone and I inwardly groaned. "Did you see my standing ovation? I mean, it was only _obvious _that I would win; and not just because I'm amazing, but the competition tonight was _awful. _First of all, you?" Yuuki looked my outfit up and down. "In all honestly, you look like some hobo they picked up off the street and just let perform because they felt bad for you. And you sounded like you were gargling vomit when you sang that _horrible _song. That had to be the worst thing I've ever heard.

"And your little band should actually try making music and not a bunch of noise because it's _not _pleasant," Yuuki went on to say and Bank's eye twitched. "Oh, heads up, Sango, it might do you a lot of good to dress like a girl instead of wear those… rags," Yuuki added, pointing at Sango's baggy camouflage cargo pants that were held up by a studded belt and her black t-shirt that showed half an inch of her torso. "And I don't even know how that purple-haired freak friend of yours made it into the top five because she looked almost as pathetic as you crying on stage except she's not a fat cow." My jaw dropped and Yuuki just smiled like she was the nicest person to ever come into existence. "Well, I hope this experience doesn't stop you from performing in the future because without losers like you there wouldn't be winners like me." She grinned and waggled her fingers at us and then turned on her heel, headed off in the other direction. "Ciao!"

"Uh… what exactly did we ever do to her?" Sho asked, looking at Bank extremely confused. "I feel like she just hates us for absolutely no reason at all."

"Well, I hate her just as much," Sango ground out. "I hate her fucking guts."

"I really don't get people," Bank grumbled to himself, rubbing his temples.

"Hey, Aimi!" I called out when I saw a head of red and black hair not too far off, digging inside my pocket for my phone when she turned around to acknowledge us. "You are not going to _believe _the picture I took a couple of nights ago when I was out on a bathroom run."

If Yuuki was going to hate us this much, I should at least give her a reason.

_**-0-0-0-0-**_

_**J'ai fini! It feels really good to be updating this story again. I WAS going to have this updated yesterday, but I was too engrossed in the Olympics (I was skyping hanmajoerin while she was editing and she saw all my cheering and frustrated faces). The next chapter is actually going to be pretty short in comparison to this one when I look to what I have planned for it, but I usually tend to drift away from my plans. Spoiler alert: the cabin wars begin in the next chapter. I'm so excited! But yeah, please review!**_

_**Funny thing about last chapter: I was at lunch during my volunteering last week and everyone at the table had food services before and we were just ranting about how awful kitchen duty was and all I could think about was the last chapter. It feels good to know I wasn't the only one to hate it.**_

_**~Kimiko888~**_

**Yuuki = Kikyo version 2.0, people. Personally, I didn't see Yuuki's criticism rant coming. Also, for those who follow Walking Tightropes, Erin's birthday was yesterday (August 1rst) so happy birthday to our shoe throwing, tyrannical band manager! **

**~hanmajoerin**


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